Authors:
Gianluca Lax
;
Francesco Buccafurri
;
Serena Nicolazzo
;
Antonino Nocera
and
Lidia Fotia
Affiliation:
University of Reggio Calabria, Italy
Keyword(s):
Electronic Signature, Digital Signature, Online Social Network, Twitter.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Access Control
;
Data Engineering
;
Databases and Data Security
;
Information and Systems Security
;
Internet Technology
;
Web Information Systems and Technologies
Abstract:
There are many application contexts in which guaranteeing authenticity and integrity of documents is essential. In these cases, the typical solution relies on digital signature, which is based on the use of a PKI infrastructure and suitable devices (smart card or token USB). For several reasons, including certificate and device cost, many countries, such as the United States, the European Union, India, Brazil and Australia, have introduced the possibility to use simple generic electronic signature, which is less secure but reduces the drawbacks of digital signature. In this paper, we propose a new type of electronic signature that is based on the use of social networks. We formalize the proposal in a generic scenario and, then, show a possible implementation on Twitter. Our proposal is proved to be secure, cheap and simple to adopt.