How to Obtain Your Own Verisign Certificate
(Digital ID)

Please be aware that Verisign will bill you directly for Digital IDs. Their current pricing is:

NOTE: $249 applies to renewals of all IDs issued after 8/18/97.
IDs issued between 8/18/96 and 8/18/97 can be renewed for $75.

If you would like to obtain your own certificate, please follow these steps:

1. Complete our Information Form

Complete our Information Form at the following URL to begin the process:

http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/secure/ssl

You will be asked to fill in information about your company and your domain. Explanations of required information are listed below.

2. Complete additional information with Verisign

After completing our form, we will gather information about our server and send it along with your information to Verisign. Verisign will send you an e-mail with a temporary "key" which you enter into a page in their web site where you can enter your payment and demographic information. You will also need to enter 'C2Net Apache SSL-US' for the Server Software Vendor.

3. Receive "CSR" via e-mail

After completing the form, Verisign will send you an encrypted Certificate Signing Request, "CSR" via e-mail.

4. Submit your "CSR" to Verisign

You will then need to go to VeriSign's online enrollment form and 'copy and paste' your "CSR" into the space provided. They will then generate an encrypted server "key" and send that to you.

5. Receive your server 'key' and send it to us

You should have received your server 'key' via e-mail from Verisign shortly after you submitted your "CSR" to Verisign (step 4). Send that "key" to us and we will place it on our server. Your certificate is then activated and you may use SSL with your own certificate.

Explanation of the form fields you will need to complete:

Common Name: The server's fully qualified domain name (It must be registered to the organization specified in that field), in the format: www.company.com (www2.company.net, company.com, org.edu, and so on). Note: you cannot use the symbols "*" or "?" as part of your common name.

Organization/Company: The legal name under which your organization is registered. Do NOT abbreviate.

Organizational Unit: This is used to differentiate between organizational divisions. Also for Doing Business As... names. Do NOT abbreviate.

City/Locality: Required for organizations registered only at the local level. Do NOT abbreviate.

State/Province: The complete name of the state or province where your organization is located.

Country: The two-character ISO-format country code. For example, GB for Great Britain and US for the United States.

E-mail Address: Your E-mail address where you receive your mail. Your "CSR" will be sent to this address.

Technical Contact: The person who should receive the certificate and who will provide notice if the Digital ID is compromised. (For example, this may be your organization's webmaster or the appropriate technical support representative at your Internet service provider.) Renewal notices are sent to both the technical and organizational contacts.

Organizational Contact: The person within your organization who will take responsibility for the certificate and provide organizational information. (For example, this may be your organization's CEO or the appropriate support person. The organizational contact must be a member of your organization, not a representative of your Internet Service Provider.) Renewal notices are sent to both the technical and organizational contacts.

return to Step 1

Definitions

Digital ID
A collection of electronic data consisting of a Public Key, identifying information about the owner of the Public Key, and validity information, which has been Digitally Signed by a CA. Certified shall refer to the condition of having been issued a valid Digital ID by a CA, which Digital ID has not been revoked.

Digital ID Revocation List ("CRL")
A collection of electronic data containing information concerning revoked Digital IDs.

Certification Authority ("CA")
VeriSign or an entity which is Certified by VeriSign to issue Digital IDs to Users in a VeriSign Digital ID Hierarchy. VeriSign is Customer's CA hereunder.

Digital Signature
Information encrypted with a Private Key which is appended to electronic data to identify the owner of the Private Key and verify the integrity of the electronic data. Digitally Signed shall refer to electronic data to which a Digital Signature has been appended.

Private Key
A mathematical key which is kept private to the owner and which is used to create Digital Signatures or to decrypt electronic data.

Public Key
A mathematical key which is available publicly and which is used to verify Digital Signatures created with the matched Private Key and to encrypt electronic data which can only be decrypted using the matched Private Key.