BS ISO/IEC 9796:1991

A digital signature in electronic exchange of information is a counterpart to a handwritten signature in classical mail. Most digital signature schemes are based upon a particular public-key system. Any public-key system includes three basic operations:

• A process producing pairs of keys: a secret key and a public key
• A process using a secret key
• A process using a public key.

This international standard specifies a scheme for digital signature of messages of limited length.