The ABA digital signature guidelines
are a set of guidelines published on 1 August 1996 by the
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
(ABA) Section of Science and Technology Law. The authors are members of the Section's Information Security Committee. The document was the first overview of principles and a framework for the use of
digital signatures and
authentication
Authentication (from ''authentikos'', "real, genuine", from αὐθέντης ''authentes'', "author") is the act of proving an assertion, such as the identity of a computer system user. In contrast with identification, the act of indicatin ...
in electronic commerce from a legal viewpoint, including technologies such as
certificate authorities and
public key infrastructure (PKI). The guidelines were a product of a four-year collaboration by 70
lawyers and technical experts from a dozen countries, and have been adopted as the model for legislation by some states in the
US, including
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
and
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
.
The Digital Signature Guidelines were followed by the Public Key Infrastructure Assessment Guidelines
published by the ABA in 2003.
A similar effort was undertaken in Slovenia by the Digital Signature Working Group (within the
Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia ( sl, Gospodarska zbornica Slovenije; acronym: ) is a non-governmental organisation representing the interests of the Slovenian economy. It has the function of an informational body in the sense of e ...
(CCIS)).
References
External links
American Bar Association
American Bar Association
Cryptography standards
Works about computer law
Standards of the United States
{{crypto-stub