Overview
Digital certificates are offered to faculty and staff as a tool for enabling encryption technologies as well as for signing of e-mail and other important electronic documents. Because it offers the reliability of central management, you can be assured that certificates can be recovered and revoked in the event of loss or tampering. At present, faculty and staff will primarily use certificates with e-mail applications. Future uses include file encryption and incorporation into certain business processes.
If you are want to learn more about digital certificates, review the PDF, Making Sense of Digital Certificates.
Digital certificates provide one measure in a suite of possible security solutions. Other options include SafeBoot encryption software and central storage of data on a system that meets minimum security standards.
At this time, the service does not include certificates for a role; for example, you cannot get a certificate for the Manager of Infrastructure. The certificate would be issued to Joe Smith (who is the Manager of Infrastructure). ITS is also not offering server certificates at this time, although it may in the future.
Features
- Dual-key certificates for encryption and digital signatures
- Managed public-key environment for reliability and support
- Works with any desktop application that supports certificates, on any operating system
Cost
Digital certificates are available at no cost to faculty and staff with e-mail addresses in supported domains (*utexas.edu and some vanity domains.)
