digital signature
<cryptography> Extra data appended to a message which identifies and
authenticates the sender and message data using public-key encryption.
The sender uses a one-way hash function to generate a hash-code of about 32 bits
from the message data. He then encrypts the hash-code with his private key. The
receiver recomputes the hash-code from the data and decrypts the received hash
with the sender's public key. If the two hash-codes are equal, the receiver can
be sure that data has not been corrupted and that it came from the given sender.
(1995-02-07)
Nearby terms:
digital service unit « Digital Signal Processing « Digital
Signal Processing Language « digital signature »
digital signatures » Digital Signature Standard » Digital
Simulation Language
