A low-down on... Digital Signatures

 

Gallery

Posted on 17 Sep 2001 at 17:07

You "sign" a key by means of your own private key. This fact can be detected in subsequent communications. Finicky, perhaps, but in the rather paranoid atmosphere that surrounds the use of encryption many people take this final stage of confirmation seriously.

Secondly, digital signatures are distinct from digital certificates, which are issued by registered certificate authorities to establish the credentials of someone doing a transaction over the Internet. For example, when downloading software from a vendor's Web site, you may be notified that a digital certificate exists to authenticate the process and reassure you about the particular piece of software you are about to accept onto your machine.

Digital Certificates can also be combined with digital signatures "to establish a hierarchy of trust via third parties" (I'm quoting Mr Pinder again here). Generally, they are intended to bolster trust in online transactions.

References

Download the PGP software

BT's Trust Services. These are provided by Ignite, which is an affiliate of VeriSign, and include "trust services for e-mail", including the provision of encryption and digital services.

The UK e-envoy The government's drive to get the UK online

PKI Online sources of information about PKI

The low-down on .NET Microsoft's framework for pervasive communication that will have digitally-based recognition of individuals at its heart.

Author: Alun Williams