Q: What is an MIT personal web certificate?

• What is an MIT personal web certificate?
• What is an X.509 client certificate?

Context

• User authentication at MIT
• Web authentication at MIT
• Secure web services at MIT
• Web browsers supporting certificates (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, others)

Answer

Certificates are your key to secure web services at MIT, such as Benefits, Request Tracker, ECAT, Roles, Atlas, and WebSIS. MIT personal web certificates are set to expire periodically.

A personal web certificate is a file with encryption keys in it that is generated by you through an MIT web site using your Kerberos username and password, and downloaded into your web browser. It is then used to authenticate you (prove that you are who you say you are) to secure MIT web sites.

Start here: MIT IS&T: Certificates at MIT For more information, take a look at the IS&T topic page on web certificates at MIT. It also includes full instructions, links to get a personal web certificate, and information about web browsers and applications that use web certificates. It is the best place to start with using web certificates at MIT.

See Also

• Certificates Landing Page
• http://ist.mit.edu/certificates
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.509
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_Authority
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Key_Infrastructure
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security