EAC - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Name : | Doug Jones
Organization : | N/A
Post Date : | 9/27/2005
Glossary Comments
Glossary Term : | Digital Signature
Definition : |
Comment : | In response to your request for comments on the draft glossary of voting system terminology, I offer the following, picking up with the letter D, having completed A through C in previous comments. As before, in each case, I am quoting the original and then offering an alternative definition. Digital Signature: Asymmetric key operation where the private key is used to digitally sign an electronic document and the public key is used to verify the signature. Digital signatures provide authentication and integrity protection. Digital Signature: Generally, a cryptographic technique used to guard data integrity and to provide authentication. The term digital signature is the preferred term when asymmetric or public key cryptography is used, while terms such as cryptographically secure checksum or secure hash function are preferred when symmetric key methods are used. -- Comment: The original and my definition both require addition of terms to the glossary: assymetric key cryptography, public key cryptography, symmetric key cryptography, cryptographically secure checksum and secure hash function.