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The
ElGamal digital signature technology was developed by Dr Elgamal way back in
1984 and is based on the concept of discrete logarithms; this forms the basis of
the widely used Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA), which has become the security
standard for the US government.
As someone who helped to develop this technology, Dr Elgamal explains why he
thinks its potential still hasn’t been fully exploited. “Digital signatures can
have a profound impact on our business processes from a technical point of view,”
he says. “Today, the technology is capable of driving many uses. However, the
legal meaning of a signature is the reason for the slow progress that we have
seen so far.
“The global nature of a handwritten signature is quite difficult to achieve,
not because of developing the technology, but because of how we recognize and
use signatures. For digital signatures to become more prevalent in our business
processes, a more global suite of standards is necessary. It is not quite enough
for a country to declare a ‘digital signature’ law [and then expect] all
businesses to use them.
“Physical signatures are instruments that we can verify in any place in the
world. It is not efficient that a business would use multiple methods of signing
and verifying signatures, depending on the place in the world where the
signature may need to be verified.”
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