Digital signature (Electronic signature)

Digital signature (Electronic signature)


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A digital signature (not to be confused with a digital certificate) is an electronic signature that can be used to authenticate the identity of the sender of a message or the signer of a document, and possibly to ensure that the original content of the message or document that has been sent is unchanged. Digital signatures are easily transportable, cannot be imitated by someone else, and can be automatically time-stamped. The ability to ensure that the original signed message arrived means that the sender cannot easily repudiate it later.

A digital signature can be used with any kind of message, whether it is encrypted or not, simply so that the receiver can be sure of the sender’s identity and that the message arrived intact. A digital certificate contains the digital signature of the certificate-issuing authority so that anyone can verify that the certificate is real.

How It Works

Assume you were going to send the draft of a contract to your lawyer in another town. You want to give your lawyer the assurance that it was unchanged from what you sent and that it is

Learn More

• Security Resources
• PKI and Digital Certificates

really from you.

1. You copy-and-paste the contract (it’s a short one!) into an e-mail note.
2. Using special software, you obtain a message hash (mathematical summary) of the contract.
3. You then use a private key that you have previously obtained from a public-private key authority to encrypt the hash.
4. The encrypted hash becomes your digital signature of the message. (Note that it will be different each time you send a message.)

At the other end, your lawyer receives the message.

1. To make sure it’s intact and from you, your lawyer makes a hash of the received message.
2. Your lawyer then uses your public key to decrypt the message hash or summary.
3. If the hashes match, the received message is valid.