Question

Your computer system is a participant in an asymmetric cryptography system. You've crafted a message to be sent to another user. Before transmission, you hash the message and then encrypt the hash using your private key. You then attach this encrypted hash to your message as a digital signature before sending it to the other user. Which protection does the private key-signing activity of this process provide?

a) Non-repudiation
b) Confidentiality
c) Integrity
d) Availability

Answer 1

The private key-signing activity in this scenario provides non-repudiation protection.

Step-by-step explanation:

The private key-signing activity described in the given scenario provides non-repudiation protection.

Non-repudiation ensures that the sender of a message cannot deny sending it. By encrypting the hash of the message using the private key, the sender creates a digital signature that can be used to verify the authenticity of the message. If the receiver can decrypt the encrypted hash using the sender's public key and verify that it matches the calculated hash of the received message, then it provides strong evidence that the message was indeed sent by the sender.

Therefore, the private key-signing activity protects against repudiation by providing a means to verify the integrity and authenticity of the message, thus achieving non-repudiation.