What is digital signature ? concept of digital signatures

Understanding digital signature:

Digital signatures are used to present any type of digital data, message or file in the form of numbers or mathematical format. It’s a technique which is used for verifying the authenticity of the message and the user. It tells the receiver of the message that it has been sent by the known source and it also confirms that file is secure to be explored. They are most often used for the financial dealings and transactions and also in some scenarios where the delivery of information is required to be confidential. They can be referred as the type of electronic signatures but we cannot say that all electronic signatures are digital signatures. In some countries of this world they are considered to be the important part and instrument of significance in sensitive issues for instance in US parliament digital signatures of the all the national members are used to authenticate the received information.

Historical Background:

The concept of digital signatures are first originated by the White field Daffier and Martin Hellman in 1976.at first their scheme was considered useless but with the passage of time the effective algorithms were designed that strongly supported the concept of digital signatures. Later on proper soft wares for data authenticity were developed which became very famous in the world. One of the most famous software for digital signatures is Lotus Notes 1.0 which was officially released in 1989, this software uses RSA algorithm for data cryptography.

How digital signature works:

Digital signature works by the integration of three algorithms which are implemented in a sequence to make the message in the digital signature format. Private, public and corresponding keys are built in digital signatures to enhance the security and authenticity. At first the very first private key that is assigned to the message verifies the authenticity of the public key and after that flexible computational signatures are developed in this way the information become unknown to the irrelevant parties.

Why digital signature are used ?

There are different reasons for which digital signatures are used

Efficiency: Digital signatures are efficient because they are comparatively shorter in length and takes very small portion of the memory the technique for shortening the digital signatures is known as hashing.

More  compatibility: Digital signatures are more compatible because they are operated on domains and are not at all independent. Leading signatures scheme are implemented on the domains. This feature makes the signature much useful.]

Enhanced  integrity: Without the hash function the digital signature offers the enhanced integrity. If the boxes that appear to the receiver in form of sign are not properly arranged then receiver would not be able to recognize the message. This is one of the features that provide good security as well.

Authentication: We have commonly seen that the entire message that is communication contains the information of the entity both at the sender and receivers end. One of the most important purposes of using the digital signature is the authentication of the source of the messages. Secret keys are assigned that can be recognized only by the matching key at the receiver end. This keeps the network threats and unauthenticated and illegal use of the message

Non repudiation: one of the distinguishing feature of digital signatures is that once signed by the entity , it cannot be denied when transmitted over domains

Uses of digital signatures

Digital signatures are used in the aspects of life and world where security matters a lot. Many governmental and confidential organizations prepare their important and private document in the form of digital signature which assures the security.