Abstract
M.Comm.
Worldwide an increasing amount of legal credibility is being assigned to digital
signatures and it is therefore of utmost importance to research and develop additional
measures to secure the technology.
The main goal of this dissertation is to research and identify areas in which the user’s
private key, used for the digital signing of messages, is exposed to the risk of being
compromised and then develop a prototype system (SecureSign) to overcome the
identified vulnerabilities and secure the digital signing process.
In order to achieve the above stated, use will be made of a cryptographic token, which
will provide secure storage and a secure operational environment to the user’s private
key. The cryptographic token is at the heart of SecureSign and it is where the user’s
private key will be created, stored and used. All operations requiring the user’s private
key will be performed on the token, which is equipped with its own processor for this
purpose.