Use Of Digital Signatures Research Articles

Simple and Efficient Signature-based Consensus Protocol in the Asynchronous Distributed System

The consensus problem in distributed systems is mainly solved by message exchange. Most of past consensus algorithms rely on exchange of oral messages to achieve consensus among processors. As oral messages are susceptible to influences from malicious attackers, this type of consensus protocols usually requires a large number of rounds of message exchange, and the complexity of message exchange is also excessively high. In light of this drawback of oral message-based consensus algorithms, some scholars proposed signed message-based consensus algorithm to reduce the number of rounds of message exchange required. However, some signed message-based consensus algorithms still have certain drawbacks which make them ineffective in some conditions. To address this issue, we propose a new signed message-based consensus algorithm in this paper. We integrate the concept of grouping into the proposed algorithm and find the best number of groups through mathematical analysis to further reduce the rounds of message exchange required. In other words, the proposed algorithm makes use of digital signature and the concept of grouping to solve the consensus problem. This algorithm can not only increase the fault-tolerance of distributed systems but also significantly reduce the rounds of message exchange required to achieve consensus.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.itc.41.2.931

Software Implementation of Cyclic Abelian Elliptic Curve using Matlab

of products and standards that use public-key cryptography for encryption and digital signature use RSA. The key length for secure RSA has increased over recent years ,and this has put heavier processing load on applications using RSA. Recently, a competing system has begun to challenge RSA: Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC).The principle attraction of ECC, compared to RSA, is that it appears to offer equal security for a far smaller key size, thereby reducing processor overhead. Cryptographers are interested only in elliptic curve that belongs to cyclic abelian group. This paper implements cyclic abelian elliptic curve in MATLAB. The properties of abelian group is proved over the coordinates satisfying the curve. Base points of elliptic curve are generated to prove that the elliptic curve belongs to cyclic abelian group.

USA – An introduction to digital signatures

Article by Edward Cheng describing the legal framework for the use of digital signatures in the USA. Published in the Letter from … section of Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London.

Using the Digital Signature of a Fingerprint by an Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem for Enhanced Authentication

ABSTRACT Finger prints are widely used for the purpose of identification, with various interfaces such as personal computer logons, access control mechanisms, and the tracking of offenders from the scene of a crime. Furthermore, fingerprints have performance advantages over other means of authentication in terms of cost benefits, device sizes, and convenience of use. Some issues still remain unresolved with respect to the use of the fingerprint authentication process. The standard process involved in the comparison of fingerprints that needs assessment with those from a database still could benefit from enhancement. We suggest the use of digital signatures through elliptic curve cryptosystem that is embedded with the fingerprint, which can provide enhanced authentication and security.

Spamming the Internet of Things: A Possibility and its probable Solution

The Internet of Things (IoT) enabled users to bring physical objects into the sphere of cyber world. This was made possible by different tagging technologies like NFC, RFID and 2D barcode which allowed physical objects to be identified and referred over the Internet. Due to less complexity and low development and deployment cost of 2D barcodes, they have become modus operandi for building an IoT system. This paper explores the possibility of spamming the Internet of Things. It tries to establish that web spammers can use 2D barcodes to flood the physical side of the IoT, trick users to see or reach unsolicited and unrelated content over the Internet and possibly destroy the legitimacy of correct content. Preliminary results from an experiment establishing the possibility of the problem are outlined. This paper also proposes the use of digital signatures (ECDSA) to address the problem of spamming the IoT. A prototype implementation of the solution and its experimental results are given in this paper.

Easing PAIN with Digital Signatures

forms of encryption techniques are being used to ensure privacy of data transmitted over Internet. Digital signature which uses Public Key Encryption (PKE) ensures privacy of conversation, integrity of data, authenticity of sender and non-repudiation of sender. Several applications on desktops, mobiles and other devices use it to secure data of various applications, services and access to devices. Digital signature exists as a file on some storage device or is embedded in hardware devices. Digital signature certificates are digital signatures that are signed by some third party certifying authority. This paper describes working of digital signature through illustrations and explains various procedures and algorithms involved in signings the data through use of digital signature. It introduces an open source software tool that can be used to study processes, procedures and algorithms used in digital signatures. It also presents information about different types of digital signature certificates currently available, file formats used therein and programming support of digital signature in .NET languages. Further, it presents an excerpt of digital signature scenario in Indian Government.

Document‐centric XML workflows with fragment digital signatures

AbstractThe use of digital document management and processing is increasing. Traditional workflows of paper forms are being replaced by electronic workflows of digital documents. These workflows often require multiple signatures to be added to the documents for authorization and/or integrity. We describe examples of digital workflows that illustrate problems with digital signatures: i.e. the use of digital signatures across entire documents results in signatures that can be unnecessarily invalidated by subsequent modification of the document. We propose the use of fragment signatures, which reduce unnecessary invalidation of signatures and enable greater concurrency in workflows. Our approach is document‐centric and does not use a centralized database. We report on an implementation that allows fragment signatures over document fragments as well as the attachment (or embedding) of other documents. This allows collaborative or cooperative editing to occur on parts of a document without disturbing unrelated signatures. We describe the lessons learned from our deployments and offer further ways to embed such signatures into other document types. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Set signatures and their applications

There are many constraints in the use of digital signatures. This paper proposes a new way of using digital signatures with some restrictions, i.e. set signatures. It works in such a way that when the signing algorithm is given, one can use it to create a valid signature on a message if and only if the message belongs to a pre-defined set, and given the information about the signing algorithm, it is computationally infeasible to create valid signatures on any other arbitrary messages outside of the set. This special property enables the signing algorithm to be made public, which seems to contradict with the traditional signature where a private key is needed, which must be kept secret. What makes the problem challenging is that the signing algorithm does not reveal the secret signing key, and hence forging normal signatures for arbitrary messages is computationally infeasible. In many cases, the signing algorithm does not reveal the elements in the authorized set. As an application of the new concept, set signatures for intelligent mobile agents committing “smaller than” condition is studied, which shows the applicability of set signatures on small sets.

Basis for the implementation of digital signature in Argentine's health environment

The growth of telemedical applications and electronic transactions in health environments is paced by the constant technology evolution. This implies a big cultural change in traditional medicine and in hospital information systems' users which arrival is delayed, basically, by the lack of solid laws and a well defined role-based infrastructure. The use of digital signature as a mean of identification, authentication, confidentiality and non-repudiation is the most suitable tool for assuring the electronic transactions and patient's data protection. The implementation of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) in health environment allows for authentication, encryption and use of digital signature for assuring confidentiality and control of the movement of sensitive information. This work defines the minimum technological, legal and procedural basis for a successful PKI implementation and establishes the roles for the different actors in the chain of confidence in the public health environment of Argentine.

Oasis Digital Signature Services: Digital Signing without the Headaches

Digital signatures have yet to obtain widespread adoption--not least because key management can be burdensome and often requires the use of special smart-card devices to ensure the keys' security. To face these issues and simplify digital signature use, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards is developing the Digital Signature Services standard to let administrators control the application of signatures on an organizational basis through network-based servers rather than individually allocating, managing, and securing keys.

Comment on ‘A technique for image encryption using digital signature’

The security of a recently proposed technique for encryption images by Sinha and Singh [A. Sinha, K. Singh, Opt. Commun. 218 (2003) 229], based on the use of digital signatures and error correcting codes, is analyzed. The proposed cryptosystem is shown to have some weakness. In fact, the secret key and the original image can be recovered efficiently by a brute force attack.

ANALYSIS OF DIGITAL SIGNATURE RULE IN THE ELECTRONIC COMMERCE LAW OF INDONESIA

The Indonesian legislature has enacted the Information and Electronic Transaction Bill (the Bill) in 2003, in which digital signature as a technology specific electronic (e) commerce has been promoted. The promotion of digital signature is still problematic, since there is an uncertainty whether Indonesia can develop well a required viable technology of digital signature. Moreover, there is a gap between the actual use of digital signature and the projections of future utilization of digital signature by interested parties on e-commerce. This paper will discuss the reason of the Indonesian legislature promotes digital signature. It will then analyse the gap between the actual use of digital signature and the projections of future utilization of digital signature by interested parties on e-commerce. This paper will finally argue whether the promotion of digital signature of the Bill is useful for the growth of e-commerce in Indonesia.

Documenting Laboratory Workflows Using the Analytical Information Markup Language

The Analytical Information Markup Language (AnIML) is a standardization effort of ASTM (formerly American Society for Testing and Materials) Subcommittee E13.15 on Analytical Data. AnIML provides an XML-based format for analytical data. It is designed specifically for spectroscopy and chromatography data, but is suitable for use with many different analytical measurement techniques. AnIML consists of a generic core structure that permits the storage of arbitrary analytical data. These include multi-dimensional data, name-value pairs, and hierarchies. The concept of technique definitions permits the formal specification of constraints for usage of the core. This way, a definition can prescribe how the data for specific measurement techniques should be captured in the data file. To address changing requirements, AnIML supports an extension concept that allows vendors or end users to specify additional data that should be stored for a technique. These extensions can also be formally documented so that they do not break compatibility with existing software. This article presents an overview of AnIML and demonstrates how AnIML can be used to record data from everyday experimental workflows in a laboratoryenvironment. Issues related to the usage of AnIML in regulated environments are also discussed, including the use of digital signatures and audit trail functionality to ensure data integrity.

Digital Signatures: A Business View

The technology to create secure digital signatures is proven and workable on PC-level hardware, as well as on mainframes. the issues currently restraining widespread use of digital signatures are primarily legal. This tutorial survey first identifies the functions a digital signature should ideally perform by tracing an example Internet-based electronic business transaction. After an overview of the technology that provides the required functionality, this article presents the current legal status of digital signature use, including a number of unresolved liability issues, and summarizes some precautions for digital signature use.

Diffusion without false rumors: on propagating updates in a Byzantine environment

We study how to efficiently diffuse updates to a large distributed system of data replicas, some of which may exhibit arbitrary (Byzantine) failures. We assume that strictly fewer than t replicas fail, and that each update is initially received by at least t correct replicas. The goal is to diffuse each update to all correct replicas while ensuring that correct replicas accept no updates generated spuriously by faulty replicas. To achieve this, each correct replica further propagates an update only after receiving it from at least t others. In this way, no correct replica will ever propagate or accept an update that only faulty replicas introduce, since it will receive that update from only the t−1 faulty replicas.We provide the first analysis of diffusion protocols for such environments. This analysis is fundamentally different from known analyses for the benign case due to our treatment of fully Byzantine failures—which, among other things, precludes the use of digital signatures for authenticating forwarded updates. We propose two measures that characterize the efficiency of diffusion algorithms, delay and fan-in, and prove general lower bounds with regards to these measures. We then provide a family of diffusion algorithms that have nearly optimal delay/fan-in product.

Digital Signatures: A Business View

Electronic commerce has been carried out successfully for years without the use of digital signatures (DSs). Hundreds of billions of dollars of commercial transactions are quite adequately handled each year using the 30+-year-old technologies of electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic funds transfer (EFT), and semiprivate communications links called value-added networks (VANs). Why, then, over the past few years have digital signatures been increasingly seen as necessary to digital commerce? And why have digital signatures had such a high profile in the trade press and even the popular press?

Principles, Methods, and Instruments for the Creation, Preservation, and Use of Archival Records in the Digital Environment

This paper focuses on the need for a systematic redefinition of the archival methods and tools required for building electronic recordkeeping systems. The analysis, which has been developed for archival education in Italy, is carried out through an examination of the historical evolution of the main functions for records creation (classification and the registry system) and the evaluation of their effectiveness in the newly developed and technologically advanced records systems. Special attention is given to the risks posed by new Italian and European rules on electronic records. These rules are based on the use of digital signature as the only guarantee for a record's reliability and authencity. It is argued, however, that the digital organization of the records, even if updated and improved, cannot be efficient if it ignores the traditional functional requirements for recordkeeping.

Digital signatures

In many applications, and in particular for financial applications, the security requirement is primarily that of the authenticity of the data (and not the privacy of data). This article examines the different types of authenticity requirements and how these are met through the use of digital signatures.

Business requirements for secure electronic communications

This article presents the experience gained over many years by Shell in the use of electronic business communications which have resulted in carefully developed strategies for maintaining control and security of sensitive electronic messages. These ideas include accreditation and certification schemes, the use of digital signatures, and the introduction of TTPs.

REALIZING DIGITAL SIGNATURES WITH ONE-WAY HASH FUNCTIONS

The possibility of digital signatures is one of the advantages of asymmetric cryptographic systems. The processing effort, however, is still an obstacle to widespread use of digital signatures, particularly when using smart cards. A more attractive idea is to realize digital signatures with one-time signatures using (conventional) hash functions. In this paper different such procedures, known in theory, will be presented comprehensively and analysed as to their practicality. It is concluded that digital signatures cannot be performed significantly faster with one-time signatures using optimally implemented hash functions than with asymmetric algorithms.