Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
any. recipient. to. conirm. the. authenticity. of. the. digi-
tal. certiicate.. A. global. standard. (X.. 509. Public. Key.
Infrastructure.for.the.Internet).deines.the.requirements.
for.digital.certiicates.and.the.major.certiicate.authori-
ties.conform.to.this..Such.standards.and.the.integrity.
of.the.certiicate.authorities.are.vital.for.the.establish-
ment. of. digital. trust,. without. which. e-commerce. will.
never.attain.its.potential.
Digital Signature:. An. electronic. equivalent. of. an. individu-
al's.signature..It.authenticates.the.message.to.which.it.
is.attached.and.validates.the.authenticity.of.the.sender..
In. addition,. it. provides. conirmation. that. the. con-
tents.of.the.message.to.which.it.is.attached.have.not.
been.tampered.with.en.route.from.the.sender.to.the.
receiver.. A. further. feature. is. that. an. e-mail. “signed”.
with. a. digital. signature. cannot. easily. be. repudiated.
(i.e.,.the.sender.is.not.able.to.deny.the.sending.and.the.
contents.of.the.message),.plus.it.provides.a.digital.time.
stamp.to.conirm.the.time.and.date.of.transmission..
For.a.digital.signature.to.be.recognized.and.acknowl-
edged.as.something.of.integrity,.it.needs.to.be.trusted.
by. the. recipient.. It. is. for. this. reason. that. a. certiica-
tion.authority.will.supply.a.digital.signature.to.persons,.
the. identity. of. whom. it. has. been. able. to. verify,. per-
haps. by. having. an. attorney's. stamp. on. a. document.
that. validates. the. applicant's. name,. address,. date. of.
birth,.and.so.forth..To.provide.greater.digital.trust,.the.
digital.signature.is.packaged.with.the.certiicate.of.the.
certiication.authority,.and.this.too.may.be.inspected.
for.validity.and.expiration..Most.people.expect.digital.
signatures. to. totally. replace. the. use. of. the. (old-fash-
ioned).pen-and-ink.signature.with.orders.and.authori-
ties. being. accepted. via. digitally. signed. e-mails,. the.
contents. of. which. may. or. may. not. be. encrypted. for.
additional.security.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL):. A. form. of. high-speed.
Internet. access. competing. with. cable. modems.. DSL.
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