certification

Comprehensive evaluation (usually made in support of an accreditation action) of an information system's technical security features and other safeguards to establish the extent to which the system's design and implementation meet a set of specified security requirements. [C4009, FP102, SP37] (See: accreditation. Compare: evaluation.)

The act or process of vouching for the truth and accuracy of the binding between data items in a certificate. (See: certify.)

The act or process of vouching for the ownership of a public key by issuing a public-key certificate that binds the key to the name of the entity that possesses the matching private key. Besides binding a key with a name, a public-key certificate may bind those items with other restrictive or explanatory data items. (See: X.509 public-key certificate.)

"The process of ascertaining that a set of requirements or criteria has been fulfilled and attesting to that fact to others, usually with some written instrument. A system that has been inspected and evaluated as fully compliant with the SET protocol by duly authorized parties and process would be said to have been certified compliant." [SET2]