Description: Certificates keep communication secure on the web.
Keywords: maintaining privacy and security, credential, certificates, digital certificates, security

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# About certificates

A certificate is a bit of code that keeps communications secure. It’s also known as a digital certificate and public key certificate.

Certificates are issued by trusted organizations, such as VeriSign, Inc. or RSA Security, Inc. When you go to a secure webpage--for instance, to do online banking--Safari checks the site’s certificate and compares it with certificates that are known to be legitimate. If Safari doesn’t recognize the website’s certificate, or if the site doesn’t have one, Safari will let you know.

A secure website and Safari work together to encrypt any information you exchange with the site. The key used for the encryption is contained in the site’s security certificate. No one can read the information as it’s being sent. This protects your login information, credit card numbers, addresses, and other secure data.

If you need to connect to a website that requires a personal certificate, you’ll be provided with a certificate and instructions for installing it in your keychain. Once your certificate is installed in your keychain, you should be able to gain authenticated access to the website automatically.

If you are unable to connect to the website, contact the website administrator.

### Related Topics

Browsing secure websites

Turning off security warnings