What is a Digital Signature?

Digital Signature refers to an electronic signature, which is secure and legally binding, and is applied to authenticate an electronic document or transaction. It authenticates the signature in the document and date of signing as well as it makes sure that the document was not changed once the signature was signed.

Digital signatures are more secure as compared to the handwritten or rudimentary electronic signatures because they are the signatures that are done with the help of cryptographic technology. They are common on government portals, compliance filings and any other business transaction where confidence and data integrity are paramount.

The cryptographic algorithms used in the generation of these keys include RSA and are stored in a secure manner. The system also generates a unique digital code that is associated with the document when a document is signed with the help of a personal key of the signer. Any person with the matching public key is also able to confirm that the document has not been altered and that it was signed by the right individual. All this is in accordance with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).