certification authority

An entity that issues digital certificates (especially X.509 certificates) and vouches for the binding between the data items in a certificate.

"An authority trusted by one or more users to create and assign certificates. Optionally the certification authority may create the user's keys." [X509]

Tutorial: Certificate users depend on the validity of information provided by a certificate. Thus, a CA should be someone that certificate users trust and that usually holds an official position created and granted power by a government, a corporation, or some other organization. A CA is responsible for managing the life cycle of certificates (see: certificate management) and, depending on the type of certificate and the CPS that applies, may be responsible for the lifecycle of key pairs associated with the certificates (see: key management).