The rise in data tampering incidents has caused a significant upward trend as far as the acceptance of digital signatures is concerned. If the hash value on Lisbon’s side matches with the hash value generated on Charlie’s side, then the program will allow the message to open up and displays the message “The document has not been modified since this signature was applied.” The program will not allow the document to open if both the hash values don’t match. Then the program which is used to open the message (e.g., MS Word, Adobe Reader etc.) compares this hash value to the original hash value which was generated on Charlie’s side. The public key decrypts the message and converts it into another hash value. On the side of Lisbon, the digitally signed message is decrypted with the help of the signer’s public key. On completion of both the processes, Charlie’s message is said to be digitally signed. Then Charlie’s private key encrypts this hash value. As stated above, Charlie must have a private key to sign the message digitally.īefore encrypting the message using the private key, an algorithm named ‘MD algorithm’ encrypts the message to be sent by Charlie into a 128/256-bit format known as a hash value. On the other hand, the receiver must have the public key to decrypt the message.įor example, a person named Charlie wants to send an encrypted message to Lisbon. The private key is kept by the signer and it should be kept securely. By this mechanism, two keys are generated, a Public Key and Private Key. The time saved combined with the undeniable savings in money is surely going to fuel the rapid acceptance of digital signatures around the world.ĭigital signatures are based on Public Key infrastructure. Numerous studies conducted around the world show that using digital signatures can save a whole working week for any working professional. This way you can save time as well as money. Instead, if you had just used a digital signature, the documents could have been sent electronically in a matter of minutes.
This process involves loads of paperwork and thereby wasting invaluable time. You would need to send the documents by means of a courier. Imagine wanting to send a physically signed document from one country to another. In simple terms, a digital signature works in the same way as an envelope seal does.
Digital Signature: A Faster, Safer and Cheaper Alternative to Conventional MethodsĪs the name itself implies, a Digital Signature is a type of signature, but the only difference is that it involves the use of mathematical pin or algorithm to sign and validate the authenticity of a document, file or software instead of pen and paper.Ī digital signature is used to make sure that the file(s) sent digitally belongs to a designated source and reaches the intended receiver in its original format without any tampering.