CA is the authority responsible for issuing certificates, authenticating certificates and managing issued certificates. CA authentication, that is, electronic authentication service, refers to the activities of providing authenticity and reliability verification for all parties involved in electronic signature.

A certificate authority (CA) is an organization that issues digital certificates. It is the authority responsible for issuing and managing digital certificates. As a trusted third party in e-commerce transactions, it is responsible for verifying the legitimacy of public keys in public key systems.

The CA Center issues a digital certificate to each user who uses the public key. The function of digital certificate is to prove that the user listed in the certificate legally owns the public key listed in the certificate. The digital signature of CA makes it impossible for attackers to forge and tamper with certificates. In SET transaction, CA not only issues certificates to cardholders and merchants, but also issues certificates to banks and gateways that collect money.

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Electronic authentication plays a fundamental and key role in information application with its four characteristics.

(1) authenticity. Ensure the authenticity of both parties to the transaction, the authenticity of the information content and the authenticity of the transaction time.

(2) Integrity. Ensure that the information of the transaction between the two parties is complete and has not been tampered with or forged.

(3) confidentiality. Ensure the confidentiality of data messages, exchanged data and information in electronic transactions, so that they are not known by unrelated individuals other than the two parties to the transaction.

(4) Non-repudiation. Non-repudiation ensures that both parties can't deny the fact that they participated in the transaction, which provides credible evidence for possible future transaction disputes.

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