Which term is used for a formal statement of ownership of a public encryption key?

• A. Credential
• B. Certificate
• C. Token
• D. License

Answer: (B)

A digital certificate is the binding of a public key to an identity, issued by a trusted authority and digitally signed to prove ownership. It explicitly states the subject’s identity, the public key, the issuer, the validity period, and the issuer’s signature, allowing anyone to verify that the key truly belongs to the stated entity using the issuer’s public key. This verifiable binding is what enables secure protocols like TLS and ensures trustworthy key usage in a PKI.

A credential is a broad proof of identity or rights, not necessarily the formal binding of a key to an identity. A token is typically an access credential for a session, not a public-key ownership statement. A license governs permitted use of software or services, not cryptographic ownership.