Safeguarding software, applications, and EXEs has become the top priority for software developers these days.
Code Signing Certificate ensures the validity of source and code integrity to aid developers in protecting their digital assets. Source validity means the identity of the software publisher is valid and legitimate, which helps bridge the trust gap between users and publishers and increases the number of downloads.
Code integrity ensures that software or executable files have not been modified or tampered with since they were developed and signed. However, is signing software code only for large organizations and businesses?
A myth associated with code signing is that only large software organizations can request and be eligible to acquire a code signing certificate. Even solo or individual developers would require a code signing certificate to secure their software and apps. But if you work as a lone wolf, you don’t need to register as a business to get a code signing certificate.
Let’s go over an individual code signing certificate and how it benefits individual or solo developers:
What is an Individual Code Signing Certificate?
Individual software developers may be unable to verify or register themselves as a business entity. Hence, certificate authorities understand this and offer standard code signing certificates to individual software developers.
An Individual Code Signing Certificate is similar to a standard code signing certificate, which uses the same public key infrastructure (PKI) to sign the code of software and executables.
The primary difference is that an individual code signing certificate is issued to solo or individual developers, while the regular code signing certificate is issued to business organizations.
Developers can use individual code signing certificates in several ways. For example, certificates allow individuals to verify their identities using digital signatures. Moreover, IV code signing helps eliminate or avoid Microsoft SmartScreen warnings from unknown publishers.
Another benefit of using individual code signing certificates is to protect your code via a cryptographic hash to validate the authenticity and integrity of your software’s scripts, which helps to determine whether the software is genuine and hasn’t been tampered with.
How Can You Get an Individual Code Signing Certificate?
You can acquire an individual code signing certificate from any reputed Certificate Authority (CA) like Comodo, Sectigo or their trusted resellers. Getting a code signing certificate from a reputable vendor rather than a CA is always a more cost-effective option.
Here’s a Simple Step-by-Step Process for Obtaining an Individual Code Signing Certificate:
Look out for a reliable and affordable code signing certificate solution provider.
Make a code signing certificate request by completing the purchase process.
Validate your identity and code integrity by following the guidelines set by issuing CA.
Provide notarized verification documents as requested by CA, like identification forms, financial or non-financial documents.
Once the validation process is successful, the CA will issue an individual code signing certificate to you.
Integrate and sign your software code.
Why Should You Use an Individual Code Signing Certificate?
Let us know some primary benefits of using an individual code signing certificate:
Unlimited Signing: Likewise for standard code signing, once CA issues an individual code signing certificate, you can sign an unlimited number of software, apps, and scripts until the certificate validity expires.
Remove Unknown Publisher Warnings: Software, scripts, and executables signed with an individual code signing certificate will have the developer’s digital signature on them, which verifies the publishing identity as a legitimate source and terminates the “Unknown Publisher” and other system warnings to users.
Software Authenticity: The “Vetting Process” stated by certificate authorities involves the verification of documents submitted by the certificate requester, which helps validate that the publisher is genuine and the software will be authentic upon signing it with an IV certificate.
Multi-Platform Compatibility: Whether you want to digitally sign JAR Files, Java Applets, Adobe executables, or Windows files, your individual code signing certificate will work on all types of software files.
Time-Stamped Digital Signature: Individual code signing certificates have a time-stamping feature that keeps the digital signature valid even after the certificate expires.
Conclusion
As we discussed, an Individual Code Signing certificate is like the standard or organization code signing certificate but designed for solo or individual software developers.
Individual code signing certificates can be easily acquired online from the reputed Certificate Authorities (CA) or their trusted and affordable distributors by successfully completing the order and vetting process, after which the CA will issue the IV code signing certificate to you.
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