A trusted third party that issues certificates as defined in IETF RFC 5280. A CA is considered public if its root certificate is included in browsers and other applications by the developers of those browsers and applications. The CA/Browser Forum defines the requirements public CAs must follow in their operations.
Source(s):
NIST SP 1800-16B
NIST SP 1800-16C
NIST SP 1800-16D