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List:       cryptography
Subject:    Now *this* is a digital signature... ;-).
From:       Robert Hettinga <rah () shipwright ! com>
Date:       1998-09-19 2:23:20
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Date:         Thu, 17 Sep 1998 19:02:34 -0500
Reply-To: Digital Signature discussion <DIGSIG@LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU>
Sender: Digital Signature discussion <DIGSIG@LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU>
From: Richard Hornbeck <rhornbec@COUNSEL.COM>
Subject:      U.S. Postal Service uses biometric signatures for bulk mailing
To: DIGSIG@LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU

An article in the August 31 issue of Federal Computer Week (fcw.com),
"CyberSign pens signature tech," explains that CyberSign of San Jose has
developed a biometric signature product that the U.S. Postal Service is
testing to speed up bulk mail delivery. Agency employees will "authenticate
and validate orders from [bulk] mailers who sign their names on a digital
pad and pass the captured data over a network."

According to the article, officials at CyberSign said "signatures have an
advantage over other methods of biometric identification because they are
already accepted as the way documents are made legally binding." (sounds
familiar)

Apparently CyberSign's technology is very similar to PenOp's which has been
discussed at length on this list. It "measures the pressure applied to a
signature and the duration of the signing process and converts that data
into algorithms . . " (sounds like the article's author is a bit confused
about converting data into algorithms, instead of using algorithms to
convert the measurements).

After a user first creates his signature template by signing on a digital
pad, it is stored on a file server for network access. The "signature" is
encrypted whenever it is transmitted over a network. The article explains
that, "[i]n order to defeat this system, the data has to come [into the
system] in a stream that exactly matches the timing and the curves [of the
signature]."

The article also mentions that the IRS is testing PenOp's biometric
signature technology to facilitate the agency's goal to receive 80 percent
of individual taxpayer's returns in electronic form by 2007.

Richard Hornbeck

www.primenet.com/~hornbeck

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-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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