The purpose of digital certificates is to provide a way to verify the identity of a party in an online transaction. In order for a certificate to be trusted, it must be signed by a trusted Certificate Authority. When a browser connects to a secure website, the website will present its digital certificate to the browser. The browser will then check the certificate to make sure that it is valid and has not been tampered with. If everything checks out, then the browser will proceed with the SSL handshake and establish a secure connection.
