A digital signature is a method used to confirm the authenticity and honesty of a message, software or digital document. Compared to a handwritten signature or stamped seal, a digital signature offers far more internal security, and it is designed to solve the problem of tampering and imitation in digital communications. Digital signatures can provide the added assurances of evidence of origin, identity, and status of an electronic document, transaction or message and can acknowledge informed consent by the signer.