The ability to guarantee the integrity of a document and the authentication of the sender has been highly desirable since the beginning of human civilization. Even today, we are constantly challenged for authentication in the form of picture identification, personal hand signature and finger prints. Organizations need to ensure authentication of the individual and other corporations before they conduct business transactions with them.
When human contact is not possible, the challenge of authentication and consequently authorization increases. Encryption technologies, especially public-key cryptography provide a reliable way to digitally sign documents. In today’s digital economies and global networks digital signatures play a vital role in information security.