Digital signature certificates

Likewise, a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) can be presented electronically to prove your identity or your authority to access information or services on the internet.

A DSC is an electronic document that uses a digital signature to bind together a public key with an identity. An identity contains information, such as the name of a person or an organization, or their address. The certificate can be used to verify that a public key belongs to the individual. Digital certificates are the digital equivalent, that is, electronic format, of physical or paper certificates. Examples of physical certificates are driver's licenses, passports, or membership cards.

Digital Signature Certificates are endorsed by a trusted authority that is empowered by law to issue them. This authority is known as a Certifying Authority (CA). The CA is responsible for vetting all applications for Digital Signature Certificates. When satisfied, the CA generates a digital certificate. To achieve this, the CA uses its own private key to digitally sign the public key of the individual along with other information.

To verify authenticity, the recipient of a digitally signed document determines whether the digital signature certificate is valid, and whether the issuer is trusted. If the issuer is trusted, the identity that is attached to the certificate can be trusted. Therefore, the signature belongs to the person or organization that signed the document.

This diagram shows an overview of digital signature certificates:

To configure the storage of keys and the trusted certificates, use the Digital Signing Configuration (ttaad2655m000) session.

For information on how to sign documents that are generated in LN, see Implementing digital signatures with Document Output Management.