What is a Digital ID? Information on digital ID's from Verisign, the leader in Internet Trust Services

What is a Digital ID?

Digital IDs are the electronic counterparts to driver licenses, passports, and membership cards. You can present a Digital ID electronically to prove your identity or your right to access information or services online.

Digital IDs, also known as digital certificates, bind an identity to a pair of electronic keys that can be used to encrypt and sign digital information. A Digital ID makes it possible to verify someone's claim that they have the right to use a given key, helping to prevent people from using phony keys to impersonate other users. Used in conjunction with encryption, Digital IDs provide a more complete security solution, assuring the identity of all parties involved in a transaction.

A Digital ID is issued by a Certification Authority (CA) and signed with the CA's private key.

A Digital ID typically contains the:

Owner's public key
Owner's name
Expiration date of the public key
Name of the issuer (the CA that issued the Digital ID)
Serial number of the Digital ID
Digital signature of the issuer