EU DIRECTIVE ON SIGNATURES

[Carl Ellison]

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"The UK - in line with our proposed legislation - will seek to
ensure that other types of electronic signatures (eg those relying on
biometric techniques) are also included."

Nigel,

	this is an important point.

	For ammunition in your argument, let me refer you to the observation that a 
digital signature differs strongly from a handwritten signature.

The former is bound tightly to a document but only loosely to a human.  Any 
person who steals a private key can make a "forgery" indistinguishable from 
the real signature.

The latter is tightly bound to a human (as a kind of biometric) but only 
loosely to a document.  The best example of this is a signed blank check -- 
or any other document that can be modified after being signed.

	Therefore, any attempt to make digital signatures equivalent to handwritten 
signatures needs a careful security analysis -- to see if the loose 
connection to the signer is adequate for the purpose of the document.

 - Carl

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+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Carl M. Ellison         cme@acm.org     http://www.pobox.com/~cme |
|    PGP: 08FF BA05 599B 49D2  23C6 6FFD 36BA D342                 |
+--Officer, officer, arrest that man. He's whistling a dirty song.-+