Digital signature certificate: A Digital Signature Certificate, also known as DSC. It is a digitally secured code issued by a certified authority that authenticates and validates the identity of the person holding this certificate. Digital Signatures have public key encryptions to generate the signatures.
A digital signature certificate includes the name of the person/organization, PAN card number, address details, PIN code, email address, date of issue of the certificate, and data about authenticating authority.
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What is Digital Signatures Certificate?
A digital signature is a legally valid signature created using a pair of encrypted numbers known as the public key and private key. This ensures that the document being signed is authenticated and cannot be tampered with.
In India, digital signature certificates are issued only by licensed certifying authorities (CA) who are authorized by the controller of certifying authority (CCA). Api Infotech is one such licensed RA that carries out the registration and authentication of individuals/organizations to issue digital signature certificates (DSC). The registration process involves multi-factor authentication, including email, mobile and video verification to ensure identity assurance.
- It is helpful in authenticating the private data of individuals/organizations when conducting business online.
- Reduced time and cost: you can digitally sign your files / Documents instead of signing the hard copy of documents physically. You can sign or authenticate reports digitally and send them more quickly.
- The DSC holder is not required to be physically present to authorize a business
- Data integrity: Digitally signed Documents cannot be altered or edited after authenticity.
- This makes the information safe and secure
Types of Digital Signature Certificates?
There are two types of Digital Signature Certificate:-
- Class-2: Here the identity of a person is confirmed against a trusted, pre-verified database.
- Class-3:This is the highest level where a person has to present himself or herself to a RA and show his / her identity.
Use of DSC
In India, the use of DSCs is mandatory for various government transactions, and only licensed certifying authorities are authorized to issue them. The use of multi-factor authentication and PKI protocols ensure high assurance security, making DSCs a reliable and secure way of conducting transactions in the digital world.
- Online Tender filling.
- E-Billing Process.
- For procurement filling.
- For the return filing process
- Online Transfer of Provident Fund.
- Online signature on all types of digital documents
- And for many other portals.
How does a Digital Signature Certificate work?
Once a DSC is obtained, it can be used to digitally sign various government documents, such as income tax returns, e-procurements, and EPFO filing. This ensures that the document is authenticated and cannot be tampered with, providing a secure way of conducting transactions in the digital world.
It is important to note that digital signatures follow the protocols of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), which manages and stores signers’ information using asymmetric cryptography to ensure high assurance security. The RSA algorithm is commonly used to generate the public key and private key, which are stored in a hardware security module (HSM) or cloud HSM.
In conclusion, the use of digital signatures and digital signature certificates is ensuring the security and authenticity of electronic documents.
A Digital Signature Certificate explicitly associates the identity of a device with a pair of electronic keys: Private and Public key
It is supported by the association Authority. The certificate contains information about a user’s identity when the certificate was issued and the name of the Certifying Authority. These keys complement each other in that one does not work in the loss of the other. They are used by browsers and servers to encrypt and decrypt regarding the status of the Certificate User during the information transfer process. The user retains control of the Private Key which can only be used with the password.
The authentication process fails if either one of these keys does not match. This means that the encrypted data cannot be decrypted and therefore is unavailable to unauthorized parties. So when a Digital Signature works, it looks for the Signing and the Encryption of the User.
hope this information about what is Digital Signature Certificate and how it works will be helpful for you. If you want a Get DSC contact to us
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