Cryptography

Digital Signatures and Certificates

Introduction

In this essay , I am going to summarize and analyze an article titled Digital Signatures and Certificates ' from the CPA journal of May 2008

The authors start the article by describing the need for data security for which procedures that verify an individual 's identity before providing access to network s are required . In comparison to existing security tools such as login names and passwords , a combination of digital signatures and certificates provide a more secure authentication mechanism (p . 60 . Digital signatures and certificates

ensure that the content of a document has not been altered , restrict document access , and record who sent and received a document and when (p . 60

Digital signatures are accepted legally . According to US legislation digital signatures can be used at federal level and have the same legal status as signatures by hand

To implement a digital signature , two main components are required - Public Key Infrastructure (PKI ) and a Certificate Authority (CA . The PKI controls who accesses a document and verifies that the content was not altered after being sent . The CA is a trusted , independent third party , which verifies and documents the sender , recipient , and time of a message . The CAs provide services , such as non-repudiation , message integrity , and date stamp necessary for web-mediated contracting (p 61

A reliable and trustworthy CA , such as Verisign or Thawte , is the foremost requirement for digital signatures . There are two implementation strategies - PC /network-based and web-based . In the first strategy , once the CA verifies the subscriber , the digital certificates are installed on the subscriber 's computer , network , e-mails , and browsers . In the web-based method , after the CA verifies the subscriber 's identity the subscriber can then place documents online and inform the recipient . To assess these documents , the recipient goes to the CA 's website . The CA only grants access to the recipient after verifying their identity (p . 61

The article by the authors clearly and succinctly explains the need legal status , implementation process and types , and applications of digital signature and certification process

References

Tidd , Ronald R Heesacker , Gary (May 2008 . Digital Signatures and Certificates . The CPA Journal , pp . 60-61

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