Mail from ILUG-BOM list (Non-Digest Mode)
Sometime Today, Manish Jethani assembled some asciibets to say:
> are coming soon. I would hate it if society required me to
> compulsorily obtain a digital signature for exchanging email.
Actually, that would be good, cause I think it would throw a whole load of
crap off the web. If spam had to be digitally signed, that would deter
most non-techies from sending.
> And the law is resting complete trust in digital signatures.
> Which means, if someone commits a ``cyber crime'' using my
> digital ID, I am jacked for life!!! Either I pay Rs. 10 lakhs
Forgery law is the same whether it's with hand signatures or digital
signatures. If you can prove that you did not sign a document that bears
your signature, then I suppose it would be investigated as a possible
forgery. All you've got to do is prove that forgery of digital sigs is
possible. Where there's a possibility, there is doubt which can save you
in court.
The thing about digital sigs is each person has a private key that no one
else knows and you are responsible to keep it private. No one else needs
to know this key unless they want to impersonate you.
If your seceratary needs to send a mail for you, then she would sign it
with her signature. To prevent cases where she sends mails without your
consent, she would need either a hand signed or digitally signed document
from you authorising her to mail on your behalf.
These laws and the human technology surrounding them are still in the
nascent stage and need to be looked at over time.
Philip
--
Water, taken in moderation cannot hurt anybody.
-- Mark Twain
_______________________________________________
Linuxers mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
