Question

) Undertake research; find out what options are available to digitally sign master files before storage. Write a 1 to 2 page report in which you set out your findings including the benefits of digital signatures and the procedures which can be used to create them

Answer 1

Digital Signatures are available as the online equivalent to adding a notarized signature via a trusted third party, known as a Certificate Authority (CA), which serves as the notary in terms of verifying one’s identity.

Certificate Authorities bind the identity to a PKI-based Digital Certificate, allowing one to apply Digital Signatures to documents/ cloud-based signing platforms

There are 3 types of Digital Signature Certificates used- Class-1, Class-2 and Class-3.
Each has its own level of security and is meant for a particular category of professional and or sector of industry.

Class 1 certificates issued to individuals/private subscribers

Class 2 Certificates issued to both business personnel and private individuals use

Class 3 Certificates issued to individuals as well as organizations

Components of a Digital Signature Certificate

• public key: is part of the verification system.
• name and e-mail address: required for contact information purposes and to enable the viewer to identify the details.
• Expiration date of the public key: sets a shelf life and to ensure that in the event of prolonged abuse of a signature eventually the signature is reset.
• Name of the company: the company that the signature belongs too.
• Serial number of the Digital ID: a unique number bundled to the signature for tracking ad extra identification reasons.

·         Digital signature of the CA (Certification Authority): signature that is issued by the authority that issues the certificates.

Benefits:

• Authentication of document and coming from a verified source
• The point that document has not been tampered as the signature would be displayed as invalid if any changes were made
• Verification of one’s identity by a trusted organization (the CA)
• can directly use Digital Signature Certificate to digitally sign your emails and send

enables the receiver for authentication of sender’s identity