Database Management White Papers

Digital Signatures In Relational Database Applications

• Tags:
• database management,
• securing,
• integrate,
• relational

Overview The nature of digital signature technology and its use in database driven applications requires a certain amount of application integration. It is this integration step that has been the primary technical stumbling block to the widespread use of digital signatures. PKI programming is still a “black art” known only to the few who have conquered its formidable layers of complexity. PKI integration projects have proven too costly and too risky for many application owners. As a result, organizations seem to be focusing on ways to add security to applications without performing complex integrations. However, as we move from securing our infrastructure to securing our applications, there is a growing genre of data security products that are making it easier to integrate security features such as digital signature into the applications themselves.

This article discusses the issues associated with integrating digital signature functionality into relational database applications. First, we discuss some concepts about digital signature and the role that digital signature plays in an application security strategy. Next we explain why relational database applications are different than other environments and discuss some of the pitfalls of various integration approaches. Then we outline an “application generic” solution to digitally signing data stored in relational databases that is very easy to integrate into applications.

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