Legal Digital Signature Definition

A digital signature is an electronic, cryptographic method of authenticating a document. It is commonly used to secure email communications, but can also be used to sign and encrypt files, or to verify the identity of a website.

Digital signatures are based on public key cryptography, which uses a pair of keys – one public and one private – to encrypt and decrypt information. The sender of a message uses their private key to sign the message, which can then be verified by anyone with the sender’s public key.

Digital signatures are difficult to forge, and can provide a high level of assurance that a document has not been tampered with. They are often used in legal contracts and other sensitive documents where it is important to verify the identity of the parties involved and to ensure that the contents of the document have not been altered.