What is the history behind digital signatures?
For centuries, signatures have been the most accepted means of authentication. Roman law recognized a combination of seals and signatures as the primary source for authenticating documents and legal contracts. The 1830s saw the first signs of electronic communications and legally recognized “electronic” signatures with the invention of the telegraph and Morse Code. But it was the introduction of public key cryptography by Martin Hellman and Whitfield Diffie in 1976 that established the first practical method of distributing cryptographic keys over an unprotected public network.
