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Abstract

A method for digitally signing a message by a tamper-resistant device to generate a digital signature. The method includes the step of hashing the message to form message bits; and encrypting with a private key the message bits, redundancy bits for the security of the signature, and auditing bits to form the digital signature for the message. The auditing bits provide an audit trail for the message. The auditing bits include one or more of the following categories: signature-packet version bits to identify the version of the device generating the signature; device ID bits to identify the token generating the digital signature; key ID bits to identify the private key; a packet-sequence number, which increments every time the device generates a signature to indicate the sequence of signatures generated; bits generated by hashing the prior signature to provide an auditing trail of signatures generated and a time-stamp to indicate the time when the signature is generated. The auditing bits may further include a random number.

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First Claim