Introduction

Introduction

Digital signatures in the electronic world are analogous to paper signatures in the conventional world.

A physical signature is a sequence of characters, generally a person's name, written in their unique style. The purpose is to provide the proof of authenticity of the individual signing the document. It has two essential properties:

1. It associates the identity of the signatory to the document.

2. It is distinctive and unique to the individual; with an intent to give assurance that no one else will be able to forge it.

The above two properties apply to digital signatures as well. Digital signatures however, have more functionality and are much more secure than conventional physical signatures.

The verification of physical signatures is achieved by a third party seeing the individual writing the signature and matching it against a known sample. In contrast, these processes are automated in digital signatures which use algorithms implemented in well tested libraries for signing and verification.