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Security Tip (ST04-018)Original release date: December 17, 2009 | Last revised: August 24, 2020 The terms digital signature and electronic signature are sometimes
confused or used interchangeably. While digital signatures are a form of electronic signature, not all electronic signatures are digital signatures. Electronic signatures—also called e-signatures—are any sound, symbol, or process that shows the intent to sign something. This could be a scan of your hand-written signature, a stamp, or a recorded verbal confirmation. An electronic signature could even be your typed name on the signature line of a document. A digital signature—a type of electronic signature—is a mathematical algorithm routinely used to validate the authenticity and integrity of a message (e.g., an email, a credit card transaction, or a digital document). Digital signatures create a virtual fingerprint that is unique to a person or entity and are used to identify users and protect information in digital messages or documents. In emails, the email content itself becomes part of the digital signature. Digital
signatures are significantly more secure than other forms of electronic signatures. Digital signatures increase the transparency of online interactions and develop trust between customers, business partners, and vendors. Familiarize yourself with the following terms to better understand how digital signatures work:
Digital signatures work by proving that a digital message or document was not modified—intentionally or unintentionally—from the time it was signed. Digital signatures do this by generating a unique hash of the message or document and encrypting it using the sender’s private key. The hash generated is unique to the message or document, and changing any part of it will completely change the hash. Once completed, the message or digital document is digitally signed and sent to the recipient. The recipient then generates their own hash of the message or digital document and decrypts the sender’s hash (included in the original message) using the sender’s public key. The recipient compares the hash they generate against the sender’s decrypted hash; if they match, the message or digital document has not been modified and the sender is authenticated. Why should you use PKI or PGP with digital signatures?Using digital signatures in conjunction with PKI or PGP strengthens them and reduces the possible security issues connected to transmitting public keys by validating that the key belongs to the sender, and verifying the identity of the sender. The security of a digital signature is almost entirely dependent on how well the private key is protected. Without PGP or PKI, proving someone’s identity or revoking a compromised key is impossible; this could allow malicious actors to impersonate someone without any method of confirmation. Through the use of a trusted third party, digital signatures can be used to identify and verify individuals and ensure the integrity of the message. As paperless, online interactions are used more widely, digital signatures can help you secure and safeguard the integrity of your data. By understanding and using digital signatures, you can better protect your information, documents, and transactions. Please share your thoughts. We recently updated our anonymous product survey; we'd welcome your feedback. What is used to guarantee that a user or website is legitimate?Look at the uniform resource locator (URL) of the website.
A secure URL should begin with “https” rather than “http.” The “s” in “https” stands for secure, which indicates that the site is using a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate.
Which of the following is an authorized person or company that issues and verifies?
What is the term for a website that uses encryption?What is the term for a website that uses encryption techniques to protect its data? Secure site.
What do we call when someone steals personal or confidential information?Key Takeaways. Identity theft occurs when someone steals your personal information and credentials to commit fraud. There are various forms of identity theft, but the most common is financial.
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