FAQ – Digital Signature Certificate

A Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) is issued by the certifying authorities in India for the purpose of verifying and authenticating the identity of the individual holding the certificate. Digital Signature Certificate is a secured digital key. A Digital Signature Certificate is required while e-Filing of ITR, Trademark Patent e-Filing, e-Tendering, e-Procurement, e-Ticketing, e-Bidding, e-Filing of ROC & MCA, DGFT ,Provident Fund Transfer, e-Filing of Documents of Custom & Excise, Custom House Agent(CHA), High Court eFiling IEC Registration, Net Banking, ICEGate & many more. Digital Signature Certificate is issued by certifying authorities and it is a secure digital key used for various online business transactions. Digital Signature Certificate contains the certificate holder’s name, pin code and country, email address, the date on which it was issued, and the digital certificate providers’ name (authority).Notably, it is issued for 1, 2 or 3 years and has to be renewed after their validity is expired. Also, an individual can have two Digital Signature Certificate – for personal and company / organisation purpose each. And all digitally signed documents are acceptable as proof or evidence for legal purpose.

A Digital Signature Certificate authenticates your identity electronically. Digital Signature Certificate also provides you with a high level of security for your online transactions by ensuring absolute privacy of the information exchanged using a Digital Signature Certificate. You can use certificates to sign / encrypt information such that only the intended recipient can read it. You can digitally sign information to assure the recipient that it has not been changed in transit, and also verify your identity as the sender of the message.

You can use Digital Signature Certificates for the following:

• For sending and receiving digitally signed and encrypted emails.
• For carrying out secure web-based transactions, or to identify other participants of web-based transactions.
• In eTendering, eProcurement, MCA [for Registrar of Companies efiling, Income Tax for efiling income tax returns] Applications and also in many other applications.
• For signing documents like MSWord, MSExcel and PDFs.
• Plays a pivotal role in creating a paperless office.

A Digital Signature Certificate explicitly associates the identity of an individual/device with a pair of electronic keys – public and private keys – and this association is endorsed by the CA. The certificate contains information about a user’s identity (for example, their name, pin code, country, email address, the date the certificate was issued and the name of the Certifying Authority that issued it).
These keys complement each other in that one does not function in the absence of the other. They are used by browsers and servers to encrypt and decrypt information regarding the identity of the certificate user during information exchange processes. The private key is stored on the user’s computer hard disk or on an external device such as a token. The user retains control of the private key; it can only be used with the issued password.
The public key is disseminated with the encrypted information. The authentication process fails if either one of these keys in not available or do not match. This means that the encrypted data cannot be decrypted and therefore, is inaccessible to unauthorized parties.

Legally valid Digital Signature Certificate are issued only through a Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), Govt. of India, licensed Registration Authorities (RA), such as Make My Digital Signature. Make My Digital Signature, a Registration Authorities (RA) licensed by Capricorn CA, offers secure Digital Signature Certificate through various options tailored to suit individual as well as organizational needs.

Yes, subsequent to the enactment of Information Technology Act 2000 in India, Digital Signature Certificates are legally valid in India. Digital Signature Certificates are issued by licensed Certifying Authorities under the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India as per the Information Technology Act.

The document signer certificate is issued for use with the software of an organisation for automated authenticated response. Document signer certificate is not a replacement for the signature of the authorised signatory of the organisation.

A Certifying Authority is a trusted agency whose central responsibility is to issue, revoke, renew and provide directories for Digital Signature Certificates. According to Section 24 of the Information Technology Act 2000, “Certifying Authority” means a person who has been granted a license to issue Digital Signature Certificates.

Digital signature certificates have an explicit start date and an explicit expiration date. Most applications check the validity period of a certificate when the digital certificate is used. The signature certificate expiration date is also used for managing the certificate revocation list (CRL). A certificate is removed from the revocation list when its natural expiration date arrives. As such, generally the shorter the certificate validity period, the shorter the CRL.

A digital signature is an electronic method of signing an electronic document whereas a Digital Signature Certificate is a computer based record that
I. Identifies the Certifying Authority issuing it.
II. Has the name and other details that can identify the subscriber.
II. Contains the subscriber’s public key.
IV. Is digitally signed by the Certifying Authority issuing it.
V. Is valid for either one year or two year

A public key infrastructure (PKI) supports the distribution, verification and revocation of public keys used for public key encryption, and enables linking of identities with public key certificates.

A PKI enables users and systems to securely exchange data over the internet and verify the legitimacy of certificate-holding entities, such as webservers, other authenticated servers and individuals. The PKI enables users to authenticate digital certificate holders, as well as to mediate the process of certificate revocation, using cryptographic algorithms to secure the process.