Overview
The world today revolves around computers. It has become necessary to have the capability to sign a digital message. To do this, special software is used to create a digital signature. Privacy has become an important issue when personal information is passed around over the Internet. Because there are people that have the computers skills that can violate you by using or altering your personal files, software creating digital signatures have been developed. This critique will discuss what is a digital signature, the components of a digital signature, how it works, and how it relates to your personal privacy.
Digital Signature DefinedA digital signature is an electronic signature that is used to authenticate the identity of the sender of an electronic message. The signature itself is a series of ones and zeros that have been scrambled by an encoding algorithm. The algorithm is either secret or published. This is called private or public keys. By using special software, an individual can obtain these keys. One key encrypts the message and the other deciphers it. The concept of a digital signature is abstract, but is a useful security measure in the securing of private documents such as medical records, legal documents, or simply confidential messages. Using a digital signature ensures that your message has been received by the intended recipient, and not altered by a third party.
·
Software
with the ability to hash or crunch the data into algorithms.
·
Use
of a public key that is available to other users that need access to the information.
·
Use
of a private key.
Digital signature is a specialized
use of public Key encryption (PKE). PKE involves two related keys, one of which
only the owner knows, the private key and the other which anyone can know, the
public key. The advantages this technology has provided are that only one party
needs to know the private key; and that knowledge of the public key by a third
party does not compromise security:
·
A
digital signature is created by processing the message contents
·
Encrypted
using the sender’s private key
·
Using
sender’s key to decrypt the digital signature
·
Message
can only have been sent by the concern sender
·
The
sender is irrefutably the originator of the message in question (and,cannot
credibly deny that they sent it even if they wanted).
The digital signature does insure that a message was sent by the intended sender and remained private and unaltered. Unfortunately, while this is good way to keep information private, messages can still be deceptive. There are loopholes in the process of digital signatures if someone has the knowledge and desire to do it. Even though there are loopholes, digital certificates can be utilized to verify senders. Digital certificates are different than digital signatures because they can be accessed by a certificate authority center in a business situation. The certificate is created containing personal information about a sender that is verifiable, but that is another topic all together. Point being, digital signatures are a positive advance in technology in our digital age. They are transportable, can’t be imitated, and can also be time-stamped.
· Digital signatures will grow ever more a part of business transactions although they have not replaced real signatures yet.
· They will be replaced most likely by facial recognition and fingerprint verification software.
· At this day in age, not everyone uses digital signatures. They will gain popularity quickly like computers, which have become an imperative asset to our communication.
· Digital signatures are a practical way of signing a document when you cannot do it in person.
Brief Article: Public Key vs. Private Key
EFF's Archive: Privacy-Crypto-Digital Signature, ID and Authentication