February 5, 2002
Practical Aspects of Modern Cryptography
25
Why do we believe what certs say?
nIn the physical world, why do we trust the statements contained on a physical cert?
nWe believe it’s hard to forge the cert
nWe trust the entity that “signed” the cert
nIn the digital world we need those same two properties
nWe need to believe it’s hard to forge the digital signature on a signed document
nWe need to trust the issuer/signer not to lie to us