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Digital signatures are a private 'key' to digitally sign a communication. The person who receives the message can unlock or decrypt the message with the sender's public key. He can also use the sender's public key to validate the authenticity of the sender's private key. Inversely, he can also use that public key to encrypted messages and send it back to the holder of the private key.
A Public Key Infrastructure consists of an authority that generates public and private key pairs used for message signing and encryption.
The digital certificate is software that resides on the desktop, lap top or a credit-card with a chip on it. The digital certificate is proof that the Certificate Authority (C/A) has verified enrollment data is supported by the C/A's trust model.
According to Paul Raines, Vice President of Electronic Security at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, digital signature encryption accomplishes four things:
1. Provides data integrity - the recipient could tell whether
or not the data's been tampered with.
2. It provides for confidentiality because the document is
encrypted.
3. Provides for non-repudiation because you can't deny you sent
or received the message.
4. It provides for authentication of sender and receiver.
Visit Web site is at http://www.gnupg.org