What is the significance of digital signatures in security?

Digital signatures play a critical role in security by providing a reliable method to verify both the authenticity and integrity of a message or document. When a digital signature is applied to a piece of data, it creates a unique cryptographic hash of that data, which is then encrypted with a sender's private key. This ensures that the recipient can validate that the message has not been altered in transit. Only the sender, possessing the corresponding private key, can create a valid signature for their message.

Upon receiving this signed message, the recipient can use the sender's public key to decrypt the signature, retrieve the hash, and compare it to a newly generated hash of the received message. If both hashes match, it confirms that the message is unchanged (integrity) and that it originates from the purported sender (authenticity). This process establishes trust between communicating parties, which is essential in various digital communications, transactions, and document exchanges.

The other options describe different functions that digital technologies serve but do not accurately reflect the fundamental purpose of digital signatures. While encryption is involved in the process of creating a digital signature, the primary emphasis of digital signatures is on authenticity and integrity rather than merely encrypting data. Therefore, it is incorrect to state that they prevent unauthorized access to