ABSTRACT
This chapter considers techniques designed to provide the digital counterpart to a handwritten signature. A digital signature of a message is a number dependent on some secret known only to the signer, and, additionally, on the content of the message being signed. Signatures must be verifiable; if a dispute arises as to whether a party signed a document (caused by either a lying signer trying to repudiate a signature it did create, or a fraudulent claimant), an unbiased third party should be able to resolve the matter equitably, without requiring access to the signer’s secret information (private key).
