Digital Signatures: Understanding Public Key Cryptography

Digital Signatures Explained

Question

A digital signature is a type of public key cryptography.

Which of the following statements are true about digital signatures? Each correct answer represents a complete solution.

Choose all that apply.

Answers

Explanations

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A. B. C. D.

CD.

A digital signature is a mathematical scheme that is used to verify the authenticity and integrity of a digital document or message. It is a type of public key cryptography that uses a pair of keys, a private key and a public key.

The private key is kept secret by the signer and is used to create a digital signature for a document. The public key, on the other hand, is freely available and is used by the recipient to verify the digital signature. Here are the correct statements regarding digital signatures:

A. In order to digitally sign an electronic record, a person must use his/her private key.

This statement is true. To create a digital signature, the signer uses their private key to encrypt a hash of the document or message being signed. The resulting signature is unique to the document or message and can only be decrypted using the signer's public key.

B. In order to verify a digital signature, the signer's public key must be used.

This statement is true. The recipient of the document or message uses the signer's public key to decrypt the digital signature and obtain the hash of the document or message. The recipient then computes the hash of the received document or message and compares it to the decrypted hash. If they match, the digital signature is verified.

Therefore, statements A and B are correct, while statements C and D are incorrect.