Certificate Chain

Certificate chain - The links between a certificate and the original source of its authenticity. This corresponds to the 'trust hierarchy' by which each link in the chain gains its authority to make statements about the identity to which a certificate refers.   (The government says what are tax offices, the tax offices say who tax inspectors are, and so on.)   As a result, it is possible to see the links between all the organizations involved in vouching for the authority of the final certificate holder.   Usually a certificate chain links the certificate you have been presented with to a root certificate.   See also root certificate, trusted authorities.

[Category=Data Security ]

Source: Arctic Soft, 05 August 2011 09:37:16, http://www.articsoft.com/it_security.htm