What is Business User Certificate?

Key concern within organizations is security of data interchange between employees and business partners. The Etisalat Business User Certificate obtained by organizations and distributed to employees and/or business partners, helps facilitate trust and security between the interacting parties. The Business User Certificate vouches for the identity of individuals over the Internet, provides the capability to digitally sign e-mails and enables others to send encrypted e-mails and information to the certificate holder. If both sender and recipient have Etisalat Business User Certificates, they can then exchange digitally signed and encrypted messages / information thereby ensuring authenticity, privacy and integrity of information or transactions exchanged.

Encryption alone is not enough, as it provides no proof of the identity of the sender of an encrypted message. Etisalat Business User certificates combine the ease of use of password based access control with the sophistication and security of Public Key Cryptography making them one of the most reliable methods to authenticate users on the Internet or any public access network.

A public key cryptography system uses two different keys to lock and unlock (encrypt and decrypt) messages and files. The two keys are mathematically linked together. An individual's public key is distributed to other users and is used by them to encrypt messages being sent to the individual. The individual keeps the private key secret and uses it to decrypt messages sent with public key. In addition to the name and e-mail address of the user, the Business User Certificate also reflects the name of the organization and organizational unit that the individual works for.