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Approving Authority: Secretary of Commerce.

Maintenance Agency: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Information Technology Laboratory (ITL).

Applicability: This standard is applicable to all Federal departments and agencies for the protection of sensitive unclassified information that is not subject to section 2315 of Title 10, United States Code, or section 3502(2) of Title 44, United States Code. This standard shall be used in designing and implementing public-key based signature systems that Federal departments and agencies operate or which are operated for them under contract. Adoption and use of this standard is available to private and commercial organizations.

Applications: A digital signature (ds) algorithm authenticates the integrity of the signed data and the identity of the signatory. A ds algorithm may also be used in proving to a third party that data was actually signed by the generator of the signature. A ds algorithm is intended for use in electronic mail, electronic funds transfer, electronic data interchange, software distribution, data storage, and