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Digital signature assurances

The following terms and definitions show what assurances are provided by digital signatures.

• Authenticity     The signer is confirmed as the signer.

• Integrity     The content has not been changed or tampered with since it was digitally signed.

• Non-repudiation     Proves to all parties the origin of the signed content. Repudiation refers to the act of a signer denying any association with the signed content.

• Notarization     Signatures in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or Microsoft PowerPoint files, which are time-stamped by a secure time-stamp server, under certain circumstances, have the validity of a notarization.

To make these assurances, the content creator must digitally sign the content by using a signature that satisfies the following criteria:

• The digital signature is valid.

• The certificate associated with the digital signature is current (not expired).

• The signing person or organization, known as the publisher, is trusted.

  Important: Signed documents, which have a valid time stamp, are considered to have valid signatures, regardless of the age of the signing certificate.

• The certificate associated with the digital signature is issued to the signing publisher by a reputable certificate authority (CA).

What are the benefits of digital signatures?

Security is the main benefit of digital signatures. Security capabilities embedded in digital signatures ensure a document is not altered and signatures are legitimate. Security features and methods used in digital signatures include the following:

• Personal identification numbers (PINs), passwords, and codes. Used to authenticate and verify a signer's identity and approve their signature. Email, username, and password are the most common methods used.
• Asymmetric cryptography. Employs a public key algorithm that includes private and public-key encryption and authentication.
• Checksum. A long string of letters and numbers represents the sum of the correct digits in a piece of digital data, against which comparisons can be made to detect errors or changes. A checksum acts as a data fingerprint.
• Cyclic redundancy check (CRC). An error-detecting code and verification feature is used in digital networks and storage devices to detect changes to raw data.
• Certificate authority (CA) validation. CAs issue digital signatures and act as trusted third parties by accepting, authenticating, issuing, and maintaining digital certificates. The use of CAs helps avoid the creation of fake digital certificates.
• Trust service provider (TSP) validation. A TSP is a person or legal entity that performs validation of a digital signature on a company's behalf and offers signature validation reports.

Other benefits of using digital signatures include the following:

• Timestamping. By providing the data and time of a digital signature, timestamping is useful when the timing is critical, such as for stock trades, lottery ticket issuance, and legal proceedings.
• Globally accepted and legally compliant. The public key infrastructure (PKI) standard ensures vendor-generated keys are made and stored securely. Because of the international standard, a growing number of countries are accepting digital signatures as legally binding.
• Time savings. Digital signatures simplify the time-consuming processes of physical document signing, storage, and exchange, enabling businesses to quickly access and sign documents.
• Cost savings. Organizations can go paperless and save money previously spent on the physical resources and on the time, personnel, and office space used to manage and transport them.
• Positive environmental impact. Reducing paper use also cuts down on the physical waste generated by paper and the negative environmental impact of transporting paper documents.
• Traceability. Digital signatures create an audit trail that makes internal record-keeping easier for businesses. With everything recorded and stored digitally, there are fewer opportunities for a manual signee or record-keeper to make a mistake or misplace something.