Security features embedded in digital signatures ensure that a document is not altered and that signatures are legitimate. Security features and methods used in digital signatures include:

PINs, passwords and codes: Used to authenticate and affirm a signee’s identification and approve their signature. Email, username and password are most common.

Time stamping: Provides the time and date of a signature. Time stamping is beneficial when the timing of a digital signature is critical, such as stock trades, lottery ticket issuance and legal proceedings.

Asymmetric cryptography: Employs a public key algorithm that includes private and public key encryption/authentication.

Checksum: A lengthy string of letters and numbers that characterize the sum of the correct digits in a piece of digital data, in opposition to which comparisons can be made to detect errors or changes. Checksum acts as a data fingerprint.

Cyclic Redundancy Checking (CRC): An error-detecting code and verification function used in digital networks and storage gadgets to detect modifications to raw data.

Certificate authority (CA) validation: CAs issue digital signatures and act as a trusted third party with the aid of accepting, authenticating, issuing and maintaining digital certificates. The use of CAs helps avoid the creation of fake digital certificates.

Trust Service Provider (TSP) validation: A TSP is an individual or legal entity that performs validation of a digital signature on a company’s behalf and provides signature validation reports.