What is a CA-signed certificate primarily used for?

A CA-signed certificate, or certificate issued by a trusted Certificate Authority, is primarily employed in production environments that are accessible over the internet. This is because these certificates provide a level of trust to users by confirming the authenticity of the website or service they are connecting to. When users access a web service or application secured by a CA-signed certificate, their web browsers can validate the certificate against a list of trusted authorities, ensuring that they are communicating with the legitimate entity and that their data will be encrypted and secure during transit.

Using a CA-signed certificate in production helps in establishing the credibility of the service, reduces the risk of man-in-the-middle attacks, and instills confidence in users about the security of their interactions with the service. In contrast, alternatives like self-signed certificates might be appropriate for testing or internal use but do not provide the same level of trust for public-facing applications.