A digital signature is a specific mathematical algorithm that is used to authenticate the validity of a message which could either be a credit card transaction, an online document or just an electronic mailer. It creates computer-generated pattern that are exclusive to an individual or organisation and can be used to authenticate users and safeguard information in all forms of digital communications. Digital signature is substantially safer than any other type of e-Signature. It ensures that the online communications between Individuals, vendors and businesses are more transparent and trustworthy. This is done by confirming that an electronic communication was not alerted or modified, knowingly or unknowingly from the instance it was signed. Digital signature generates a unique key for the online communication and encrypts it using a sender’s private key. The unique key generated is exclusive to the communication and changing / updating any part of the communication will completely alter the unique key. Upon completion, the digital communication is digitally signed and sent to the addressee. The addressee then generates their copy of the communication and tries to decrypt the sender’s unique key (included in the communication at the time of creation) using the sender’s public key. The addressee then compares the copy of communication they generated with the sender’s decrypted communication, if they match – the communication has not been alerted or modified and the sender is genuine. With a digital signature, every signer is issued a certificate-based digital ID by a trusted certificate authority (CA), while signing is backed by public key infrastructure (PKI) technology. This makes digital signatures ideal for transactions that need more advanced authentication
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