Digital Signature Complete Guide | Components Of Digital Signature | TECH WORTHY MIND
A digital signature or digital signature scheme is a mathematical approach used for authentication a digital message or a document.
Whenever a digital signature is assigned to a message, the recipient believe that the message is create by a known sender and not been altered during the transmission. Digital signature are generally used in software distribution and financial transactions. Whenever a message is send through an insecure network, an assurance that the message is send by a claimed sender is given to the received through a properly implemented digital signature. The digital signature are not much different from the traditional handwriting signature. To standardized the use of digital signature, different organisations, such as United State Government Printing Office (GPO), are publishing as well as releasing the electronic budgets. There are two main reasons for using digital signature, which are as follows:
Authenticity:
Security:
Assures that the message are delivered securely without any security threats. This assume the sender and the receiver of the message that the message has not been altered by an unauthorised source during transmission. Initially, you have lerned about the process of encrypting the message to prevent its unauthorised access. However, the encryption process can only hide the content of the message, which implies that the message is not been altered. In case of digital signature, if any alterations is made in the message, the digital signature become invalid.
Requirements of Digital Signature System
A digital signature is a block of code which ensure that any data that is received originates from specific user. It is used to stimulate the security properties of a signature in digital form. You can use a digital signature when you want to distribute data and assure the recipient that received the data indeed comes from you. Signing data does not alter the data; it simple generates a digital signature string that you can send with the data. The benefit of using digital signature is that they provide that it is received from a trusted source, and integrity of data ensures that the recived data has not been tampered during transmission.
Components of Digital Signature
Digital Signature are primarily used for the purpose of identity verification, user validation, and document authentication. These activities are subject to high-level security vulnerabilities, especially on the internet. It is most important for us to known the components of digital signature so that we could understand the way it provides security.
A digital signature consists of the following components:
Name:
Refers to the name of the individual or organization. This is the necessary component and the rest of the components are optional. It is an important component as it prevent other individuals or organization from being assigned with the same name.
Contact details:
Refer to the full contact details of the individual or organisation, including email address, telephone number, and other contact details.
Public key:
Refer to the public key of the individual or organization. This work as your secret identification number and is the part of the varification process. The signature also includes the expire date of the public key that indicates the duration for which the digital signature is valid.
Serial number:
Refer to the serial number of the individual or organisation that is used for the digital identification.
igital Signature of the Certification Authority (CA):
Refer to the digital signature of the CA, which is a third party that has issued the digital certificate to the individual or organization.
Technical Issues
Digital signature use 'public key cryptography'. They employ an algorithm that uses two different but mathematically related 'keys'; the first key is for creating a digital signature and is called the private key is for verifying a digital signature. It is called the public key. When many people want to verify a signer 's digital signature, the public key must be made available to all of them. Computer equipment and software are collectively called "asymmetric cryptography".
Use of digital signature usually involve two process ,namely, digital signature creation and digital signature verification. Digital signature creation is performed by the signer. It uses a hase result which is computed from the signed message and the given private key . This hash result is unique.
Digital signature verification
Is performed by the receiver of the digital signature. A digital signature is verified by computing a new hash result of the original message using the same hash function that was used to create the digital signature. With the help of public key and the new hash result thus obtained, the verifier checks:
1- Whether the digital signature was created using the corresponding private key.
2- Whether the newly computed hash result match with the original hash result. There are a number of asymmetric cryptosystems available in the market and the employ different algorithms and procedures to create and verify digital signature. However their overll pattern of operation is the same. The processes of creating a digital signature and verifying it satisfy many legal requirements because of the following reasons:
• Signer authentication:
A signer is verified by comparing the public and private key pair of digital signature with that of an identified signer. If the match is found , the message is attributed to the signer loses control of the private key either by losing it or divulging it.
• Message Authentication:
The digital signature also verify the signed message by comparing the hash results made during the signing and verification. They are able to authenticate the message with greater accuracy than the paper signatures.
• Affirmative act:
Creating a digital signature requires the signer to use his/her private key. This alerts the signer to the fact that he/she is carrying out a transaction which may have legal consequences.
• Accuracy:
The creation and verification of a digital signature have proven to be quite accurate and is still a high level of assurance that the digital signature is genuinely the signer's.
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