Figure 20 - Public Key Certificates

Here we can see that everyone’s public key certificate is, well – um, public. The important thing to note is that the certificate authority also has a public key certificate that identifies itself. This certificate is signed with its own private key and is a “self-signed” certificate. As you may remember, Jetdirect also creates a self-signed certificate. What is the difference between a certificate authority’s self- signed certificate and Jetdirect’s self-signed certificate? Good Question! First let’s describe what a self-signed certificate actually is. Let’s assume Jack realizes that he doesn’t have a CA but he needs a certificate. Here is what he does

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