Personal certificates are used for a multitude of practical applications, such as: 

Securing a personal e-mail address

Users can encrypt e-mail messages for confidentiality, initial them and even include a legally recognized signature. For organizations, an e-mail message with a qualified electronic signature is a very practical and reliable substitute for a signed letter. It is a quicker, easier and more cost-effective method than sending a letter by postal mail.

Applying strong user authentication

VeriSign Qualified Certificates allow users to authenticate themselves in a wide variety of settings:

• to a web server secured with SSL;
• to a Microsoft network (using Windows smartcard logon);
• to a Citrix environment (using Citrix logon);
• to a VPN (Virtual Private Network).

Fast and paperless completion of administrative processes

Users can sign forms, publications and purchase orders electronically. This is how the VeriSign Qualified Certificate can substantially speed up an organization's internal processes.

Optimizing processes by legally signed electronic documents

Users include the qualified electronic signature of a VeriSign Qualified Certificate in proposals, contracts and invoices. Because the documents are in electronic format, they can be processed and sent faster than traditional paper documents. Which means faster completion of these processes, resulting in a significant increase of the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization.

Provision of confidential information

An organization often needs to provide confidential information to third parties; or members of the organization need to communicate with one another in digital format without other parties being able to see the contents of a message; or user groups want to share confidential information in various tasks. Encryption with the VeriSign Qualified Certificate makes this possible in a reliable and safe manner. Resulting in reliable digital communications with 100% certainty regarding the identity of the sender and receiver.