-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- - From the MacWeek article:
validity. To get your own digital signature from RSA, you take a form to a notary public, who verifies your identity, notarizes the information on the form, and then mails the form to RSA.
The form contains your name, address, etc, and a printout of your public key.
Based on the notary public's authority to say you are who you claim to be, you eventually receive a disk in the mail with your personal electronic signature.
_Not_. The disk contains a PEM style certificate, authenticating your public key. On your local machine, where you generated your private key, is a file (your private key) called a signer. This file is your private key + software to make it sign things, so the whole thing is a self contained application -- but it refused to function until you bind it to a certificate.
Your electronic signature has a two-year expiration date, and includes some verification information.
Certificate, not signature, just like RSA has been trying to sell them all along.
If someone wants to make sure your signature is valid, he or she contacts the issuing authority listed in the certificate.
Wrong again. Validation occurs locally because an entire chain of certificates is provided in the signature
There will be issuing authorities other than RSA. For example, Apple Computer's security department plans to issue signatures to all Apple employees with employee badges."
Not signatures, certificates. All key generation takes place locally. RSA does not generate the keys. These articles are a woeful misrepresentation by over simplification. I will happily provide clarification to the authors if they call me. If anyone wants, I will demonstrate this software at the next Bay Area cypherpunks meeting. Scott Collins | "Few people realize what tremendous power there | is in one of these things." -- Willy Wonka ......................|................................................ BUSINESS. voice:408.862.0540 fax:974.6094 collins@newton.apple.com Apple Computer, Inc. 5 Infinite Loop, MS 305-2B Cupertino, CA 95014 ....................................................................... PERSONAL. voice/fax:408.257.1746 1024:669687 catalyst@netcom.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3 iQCVAgUBLMw0nSmBKTQiZpaHAQFWOwQAqnD+C7cO0XDzCrbh7hxjzTSDEhbbtxZZ B4+dXNghqSSI24c+T8FZC/gwBIhDq4Q1z0iEml2d84VcFZoHdLJL2Vi803go179E 86uwlggClAPVT+vhqE/LG7NrOC7+r8gTBk5S4gi5fX4hCkMQXdjcNOaWvgQ/slOF XbH+g4vjhF8= =Kn0e -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Scott Collins | "Few people realize what tremendous power there | is in one of these things." -- Willy Wonka ......................|................................................ BUSINESS. voice:408.862.0540 fax:974.6094 collins@newton.apple.com Apple Computer, Inc. 5 Infinite Loop, MS 305-2B Cupertino, CA 95014 ....................................................................... PERSONAL. voice/fax:408.257.1746 1024:669687 catalyst@netcom.com