Some background information on digital signatures from Entrust
Entrust Resources
Digital Signatures
Digital Signatures are Best Practice for Electronic Communications and Transactions
Digital signatures powered by public-key infrastructure (PKI) technology, are widely recognized as best practice for ensuring digital verification for electronic transactions. Digital signatures are the most effective, secure, and easy-to-implement method of providing verification while enabling electronic transactions. The benefits of PKI-powered digital signatures include knowing:
whom you are dealing with (identification)
who is authorized to access what information (entitlements)
you have a verifiable record of transaction (verification)
Recognized in legislation around the world
Increased awareness of security and privacy issues is resulting in national and international legislation on privacy and digital signatures, as well as industry-specific regulations for selected broad verticals. Examples of such legislation in the United States alone include the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign), the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) Financial Services Act, and the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA).
The broad adoption of digital signatures built on Internet security foundations is now generally acknowledged. The infrastructure build-out is currently underway, and the scale is enormous — for example, the U.S. Department of Defense has requested $700 million in funding from fiscal year 2000 through 2005 solely for Internet security development (Information Security-Advances and Remaining Challenges to Adoption of Public Key Infrastructure Technology, GAO, February 2001].Entrust Resources: Digital Signatures:
Entrust Resources
Digital Signatures
Digital Signatures are Best Practice for Electronic Communications and Transactions
Digital signatures powered by public-key infrastructure (PKI) technology, are widely recognized as best practice for ensuring digital verification for electronic transactions. Digital signatures are the most effective, secure, and easy-to-implement method of providing verification while enabling electronic transactions. The benefits of PKI-powered digital signatures include knowing:
whom you are dealing with (identification)
who is authorized to access what information (entitlements)
you have a verifiable record of transaction (verification)
Recognized in legislation around the world
Increased awareness of security and privacy issues is resulting in national and international legislation on privacy and digital signatures, as well as industry-specific regulations for selected broad verticals. Examples of such legislation in the United States alone include the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign), the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) Financial Services Act, and the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA).
The broad adoption of digital signatures built on Internet security foundations is now generally acknowledged. The infrastructure build-out is currently underway, and the scale is enormous — for example, the U.S. Department of Defense has requested $700 million in funding from fiscal year 2000 through 2005 solely for Internet security development (Information Security-Advances and Remaining Challenges to Adoption of Public Key Infrastructure Technology, GAO, February 2001].