Electronic signature must be bound to a specific subject, which can be a unit or an individual. The most widely used electronic signature technology in the world is digital signature technology. The digital certificate in digital signature technology can be used to make data messages, and the certificate can only be used if it is bound to a specific subject.

Digital certificates are divided into two categories:

One kind is called "soft certificate", which is a file digital certificate, which can be stored in a computer or hosted on a cloud server;

The other is called "hard certificate", which is stored in a USBkey similar to a USB flash drive.

In legal effect, there is no difference between these two types of digital certificates. Digital certificates used by the public should be issued by CA institutions that have obtained the electronic certification service license of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; All legal CA institutions shall provide directory information inquiry service and status information inquiry service of electronic signature certificates.

From the perspective of judicial practice, the judge should first find out the following facts:

(1) Whether the digital certificate used for electronic signature is issued by a CA organization licensed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology;

(2) Who owns the digital certificate and the process of issuing the digital certificate to the electronic signer.

In a word, electronic signature and electronic seal are not only used in the Internet industry, but also widely used in various fields, becoming indispensable tools for digital office. It is an inevitable trend to replace the traditional signature and seal.