Q6. The use of digital certificates and passports are just 2 examples of many tools for validating legitimate users & avoiding...

Q6. The use of digital certificates and passports are just 2 examples of many tools for validating legitimate users & avoiding consequences such as identity theft. What others exist?

Answer:

Digital Certificates (or sometimes called Digital IDs) are the electronic counterparts to driver licenses or identity cards. You can present a digital certificate electronically to prove your identity in an electronic message or your right to access information or services available online on the Internet.
The most common use of a digital certificate is to verify that a user sending an electronic mail message is who he or she claims to be, or authenticating a World Wide Web services without the need of user name and password. In the electronic commerce area, a new emerging standard SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) co-developed by Visa and MasterCard, which safeguards credit card purchases made over open network such as Internet, is also based on the digital certificate technology. (CCST, 1997)

Digital Passport were introduced in Germany since 2005. According to Germany's Ministry of the Interior, some 600,000 Germans have applied for these new passports. In the initial version, these biometric passports contain a picture of the passport holder stored on a chip. When this chip is contacted via wireless, it only sends the data it has (the facial picture and a digital signature) if the access key provided in the query is correct. In 2007 or afterwards, fingerprints may be added to these facial pictures. This second version of the biometric passports requires a complex infrastructure because fingerprint scans require an online check to see whether the digital signature is valid. Starting in April of this year, all passport centers will also be receiving digital passport scanners so that citizens can see what is stored on the chip. (Craig Morris) (CeBIT, 2006)

Beside Digital Certificates and Passports, there are also other tools for validating legitimate users and avoiding consequences such as identity theft. The tools are Digital Signature, Electronic ID and Digital Fingerprint.

A digital signature or digital signature scheme is a type of asymmetric cryptography. For messages sent through an insecure channel, a properly implemented digital signature gives the receiver reason to believe the message was sent by the claimed sender. Digital signatures are equivalent to traditional handwritten signatures in many respects; properly implemented digital signatures are more difficult to forge than the handwritten type. Digital signature schemes in the sense used here are cryptographically based, and must be implemented properly to be effective. Digital signatures can also provide non-repudiation, meaning that the signer cannot successfully claim they did not sign a message, while also claiming their private key remains secret; further, some non-repudiation schemes offer a time stamp for the digital signature, so that even if the private key is exposed, the signature is valid nonetheless. Digitally signed messages may be anything representable as a bitstring: examples include electronic mail, contracts, or a message sent via some other cryptographic protocol. (Wikipedia-1, 2009)

An e-ID (short for Electronic Identification) and its corresponding password is your means of identifying yourself to the various services available at SIUE. If you apply for an e-ID using the following web pages and meet all the criteria, you will be assigned an e-ID and password.
An e-ID will give you access to may services provided at SIUE. For example:

• Access to Blackboard
• Dial-up access to the internet from a home PC
• Email
• Personal Web pages
• Advisor Track

(Blackboard, 2009)

A digital fingerprint is an identifying sequence of digits which is the result of applying a mathematical algorithm to the complete content of a digital file. Digiprove uses a proven algorithm called "SHA256" for this. The process generates a 256-bit (64 character) calculated value, and the algorithm is so constructed that even the tiniest change to a document will result in a change to its fingerprint. The algorithm is a "one-way" process which means that it is not possible to recreate a document from the fingerprint, and that it is not possible (without massive computing power factors beyond those currently available) for a computer program to calculate a document that will result in a given fingerprint. (DIGIPROVE, 2009)

Reference:

1. CCST (1997). "Digital Certificates". Centre of Computing Services and Telecommunications in the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Retrieved from URL - http://www.ust.hk/itsc/internet/digitalid/
2. CeBIT (2006). "FDP wants to postpone biometric passports". CeBIT 2-6 March 2010, Retrieved from URL - http://www.cebit.de/newsanzeige_e.html?multi=1&back=/homepage_e&news=22752&back=%2Fhomepage_e&PHPSESSID=c0a80e37af2ffb4fff2065059d432a74e576e5f3&x=1
3. Wikipedia-1 (2009). "Digital Signature". Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved from URL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Signature
4. Blackboard (2009). "Electronic ID (E-ID)". Information Technology Services in SIUE Edwardsville, Retrieved from URL - http://www.siue.edu/its/ftc/bb/ and http://www.siue.edu/its/ftc/bb/pdf/new_e_ID.pdf
5. DIGIPROVE (2009). "What is Digital Fingerprint?". FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions - DIGIPROVE Proving Ownership & Compliance, Retrieved from URL - http://www.digiprove.com/faq_what_is_digital_fingerprint.aspx