Digital Signatures & Certification Taking Business to Next Level

About Digital Signature

Digital Signatures are an online phenomenon required for transactions between two individuals, organizations, government bodies, and institutes. Digital signatures are certified by CA or certifying authorities that have been empowered by a Government body in charge of the information technology sector. The CAs or the intermediates appointed by them issue digital signature certificates. In India, it is the CCA or Controller of Certifying Authorities. CCA appoints CAs who in turn appoint intermediate CAs to form a distribution network making the issuance of DSC fluid.

The encryption done during the process of sending encrypted digital signatures in form of a message or a document is nigh impossible to manipulate. They can be opened by the receiver only using a public key sent along with the encrypted hash or the digest. Never mind if the public key falls in the wrong hands the purpose of the digital signature certificate is limited to verifying the sender and preventing manipulation along the way.

Why certified digital signatures?

In the phenomenally expanding cyberspace doing business or executing transactions online has become extremely dicey since in most instances the person or the organization at other ends is unknown and often not within the grasp of legal infrastructure. Hence a certification of authenticity goes a long way to facilitating business processes and transactions online. Another benefit of DSC is that it enables the authentification of the encrypted message and electronic documents using the public key infrastructure. The encryption and decryption are part of a digital signature but are essential for preventing on the way attacks or manipulation of messages and documents by hackers. To assure that the document has not been tampered with, the receiver creates a hash value using an algorithm and matches it with that created by the sender. Both should return the same value to assure that the matter has not been tampered with.

Digital Signature Certificates

Digital signature certificate or DSCs (abbrev) enhance the confidence level of the recipients and facilitates online transactions that would otherwise have been shunned. There are two positives about the DSC one is the authenticity of the sender is certified and the second is the assurance that the encrypted message has not been transgressed or manipulated. Simply put the certification ensures the authenticity of the whole process and guarantees a hacker-free environment. This is a big boon to businesses and eCommerce transactions by providing a layer of validation for entities sent through nonsecure channels on the world wide web. In this cryptographic process, another benefit is that the encryption sent is non-repudiable and the sender cannot backtrack.

The origin or the owner who sends the public key is certified by the CA and a certificate digitally signed by them is sent to the sender with an expiry date. This process is charged and the price varies according to the country of origin.

Although these signatures or certification is part of a cryptographic protocol suite the whole process is not difficult to implement for laymen. In many countries, digital signatures are legally binding.

The Process

A part of the process has already been mentioned above to know more read on...

The mathematical scheme is implemented using three key algorithms

• A private key generating algorithm
• A signing algorithm
• A public key algorithm for verification

This completes the cycle for the creation of a digitally encrypted message that is impossible to manipulate on open source messaging systems. This is equal to signing a document using your handwriting or creating a thumb impression. The methodology certifies the integrity and authenticity of the document and the sender. In many countries like the US and the UK, the signatures have become legally binding. Besides all the benefits that can accrue by purchasing DSC for business. The whole process is convenient and environmentally friendly besides eliminating the cost of printing documents and sending them by courier.

A group of writers at Above the Fold Digital Marketing and Web Development Company in Mumbai India