Recommendation for Obtaining Assurances for Digital Signature Applications

A digital sig. (DS) is an electronic analogue of a written sig.; the DS can be used to provide assurance that the claimed signatory signed the info. In addition, a DS may be used to detect whether or not the info. was modified after it was signed (i.e., to detect the integrity of the signed data). Each signatory has a public & private key & is the owner of that key pair. The private key is used by the owner to generate a DS; the public key is used in the sig. verification process. This document recommends methods for obtaining the assurances necessary for valid DS: assurance of domain parameter validity, assurance of public key validity, assurance that the key pair owner actually possesses the private key, & assurance of the identity of the key pair owner. Illus.Barker, Elaine is the author of 'Recommendation for Obtaining Assurances for Digital Signature Applications', published 2007 under ISBN 9781422312926 and ISBN 1422312925.