Digital Signature Certificate

Digital Signature Certificates (DSC) have a specific start date and a specific expiration date. Generally, every time a digital certificate is used, its validity is checked for security purposes. The expiration date of a digital signature certificate is also used for managing the certificate revocation list (CRL). 

A Certificate Revocation List (CRL) is a list of all the digital certificates that have been revoked by the issuing Certificate Authority (CA) before or when their scheduled expiration date arrives and should no longer be trusted. A certificate is removed from the revocation list as soon as its natural expiration date arrives. As such, generally the shorter the certificate validity period, the shorter the CRL.

The use of DSC has gained significant influence in ensuring the security and protection of online transactions and the transfer of documents across various transacting parties. After the completion of the validity of the DSC, one must obtain a renewed DSC for which a new application has to be made. In case of any change within the personal information enlisted in the DSC, one must apply for creating those changes and for updating the same on the DSC.

A Digital Signature Certificate is issued for a limited duration for security purposes. This is primarily to reduce the risk of fraud by non-consensual use of the digital signature. This ensures that the digital signature is getting used by the intended user. The validity of Digital Signature certificates depends on what package one have purchased, There are total 3 validity periods in a digital signature certificate, the first one is 1 year where a digital signature is valid only a year, and the second is 2 year period during which a person or an authority has a total 2-year validity and digital signature certificates are now coming with a 3 year validity period which ensures a total validity of 3 years.