A certified digital signature is an electronic signature that meets the highest legal standards. It also guarantees that the contents of the document haven’t been altered after it’s been sent. With a digital signature, you can encrypt your document by using a public and private key that only you can access.

Who issues the Digital Signature Certificate? A licensed Certifying Authority (CA) issues the digital signature. Certifying Authority (CA) means a person who has been granted a license to issue a digital signature certificate under Section 24 of the Indian IT-Act 2000.

A digital signature is a mathematical technique used to validate the authenticity and integrity of a message, software or digital document….Industries that use digital signatures include the following:

• Government.
• Healthcare.
• Manufacturing.
• Financial services.
• Cryptocurrencies.

A user will generate the digital signature and another user will verify the signature using the verification process. Both the signer and the verifier have a public and private key that they use to complete each process. In this sense, anyone with the public key can verify the signed message using the public key.

Validating Digital Signature

1. Click the Edit Document button on the toolbar then double-click the signature.
2. Click the Hand Tool button on the toolbar then click the signature once.
3. Right-click the signature and select Signature options.

Steps to apply for a Digital Signature Certificate

1. STEP 1: Log on and select your type of entity.
2. STEP 2: Fill the necessary details.
3. STEP 3: Proof of identity and address.
4. STEP 4: Payment for DSC.
5. STEP 5: Post the documents required.

Open your document and click the File tab. Click Info and then click Protect Document. From the Protect Document drop-down menu, click Add a Digital Signature. Select a Commitment Type, such as created and approved this document, and then click Sign.

Click Start, point to All Programs, click Microsoft Office, click Microsoft Office Tools, and then click Digital Certificate for VBA Projects. The Create Digital Certificate box appears. In the Your certificate’s name box, type a descriptive name for the certificate. Click OK.

Digital certificates are the credentials that facilitate the verification of identities between users in a transaction. Much as a passport certifies one’s identity as a citizen of a country, the purpose of a digital certificate is to establish the identity of users within the ecosystem.

A digital certificate is an electronic document issued by a Certificate Authority (CA). It contains the public key for a digital signature and specifies the identity associated with the key, such as the name of an organization. The certificate is used to confirm that the public key belongs to the specific organization.

Security – Simply put, digital certificates are the most practical option to securing your corporate data online. Digital certificates encrypt your internal and external communications to avoid outsiders and phishers from stealing sensitive information. A prime example of digital certificates would be SSL Certificates.

Digital certificates are used in public key cryptography functions; they are most commonly used for initializing secure SSL connections between web browsers and web servers. Digital certificates are also used for sharing keys to be used for public key encryption and authentication of digital signatures.

The Disadvantages of Digital Certificates Since certificate authorities are the ones in charge of issuing digital certificates (think of them as the digital version of a passport office), hackers often target these authorities in order to manipulate certificate information.

Disadvantages of Digital Signatures

• A digital signature will be highly dependent on the technology used to create it.
• To use digital signatures, you have to purchase digital certificates that can be quite pricey.
• Users also have to purchase verification software.

Digital Signature Weakness? They do not confirm the true identity of the sender.

The signature algorithm field contains the identifier for the cryptographic algorithm used by the CA to sign the certificate. The signature value field contains a signature digitally added to the encoded TBS certificate.

Digital certificates do not contain your private key. You must keep your private key secret.