Manual de Bit4id per a Windows

11. Glossary

Certification Authority: is the trusted entity responsible for issuing and revoking electronic certificates used in electronic signatures. The Certification Authority, by itself or through the intervention of a Registration Authority, verifies the identity of the applicant for a certificate before its issuance or, in the case of certificates issued with the status of revoked, eliminates the revocation of the certificates by verifying this identity.

Expiration of the digital certificate: the digital certificate has a validity period that is stated on the certificate itself. It is generally 2 years, although the law allows a validity of up to 5 years. Once the certificate has expired, it will not be possible to use the services offered by the Administration that require an electronic signature, and any electronic signature made from that moment on will not be valid.

Digital certificate: document on computer media issued and signed by the Certification Authority, which guarantees the identity of the owner.

Recognized certificate: certificate issued by a Certification Service Provider that meets the requirements established in the Law regarding the verification of the identity and other circumstances of the applicants and the reliability and guarantees of the certification services they provide, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter II of Title II of Law 59/2003, of December 19, on electronic signatures.

Electronic signature: a set of data, in electronic form, attached to other electronic data or functionally associated with them, used as a means to formally identify the author or authors of the document that contains it. There are 3 types of electronic signature: simple, advanced and recognized electronic signature.

Simple electronic signature: set of data, in electronic form, attached to other data.

Advanced electronic signature: electronic signature that allows the signer to be identified and any subsequent changes to the signed data to be detected, which is uniquely linked to the signer and to the data to which it refers and which has been created by means that the signer can maintain under their exclusive control.

Recognized electronic signature: an advanced electronic signature based on a recognized certificate and generated by a secure signature creation device is considered a recognized electronic signature. The recognized electronic signature will have the same value with respect to data recorded electronically as a handwritten signature with respect to data recorded on paper.

Hash function: it is an operation that is performed on a data set of any size, so that the result obtained is another data set of fixed size, regardless of the original size, and which has the property of being uniquely associated with the initial data, that is, it is impossible to find two different messages that generate the same result when applying the hash function.

Hash or fingerprint: fixed-size result obtained after applying a hash function to a message and which meets the property of being uniquely associated with the initial data.

Integrity: integrity is the quality possessed by a document or file that has not been altered and that also allows verification that no manipulation has occurred in the original document.

Certificate Revocation Lists or Revoked Certificate Lists: list that contains exclusively the lists of revoked or suspended certificates (not expired ones).

Non-repudiation: the sender who electronically signs a document will not be able to deny that he sent the original message, since it is attributable to the sender through the private key that only he knows and that he is obliged to keep. Non-repudiation also allows you to verify who participated in a transaction.

Non-repudiation or non-repudiation is a security service closely related to authentication and which allows to prove the participation of the parties in a communication. The essential difference with authentication is that the former occurs between the parties establishing the communication and the non-repudiation service occurs before a third party.

Certification Service Provider or PSC: a natural or legal person who issues electronic certificates or provides other services in relation to electronic signatures. See Certification Authority.

PIN: sequence of characters that allow access to certificates. Personal Identification Number, sometimes called NIP.

PUK: sequence of characters that allows the PIN to be changed or unblocked. Personal Unblocking Key.

Renewal: Renewal consists of requesting a new certificate using a valid certificate that is about to expire. In this way, before a certificate expires, you can request renewal, which means that a new valid certificate will be issued.

Revocation: definitive cancellation of a digital certificate at the request of the subscriber, or on the initiative of the Certification Authority in case of doubt about the security of the keys. Revocation is an irreversible state. You can request the revocation of a certificate after a suspension situation or at the will of the people authorized to request it. Similarly, in the case of a suspended certificate, if the maximum suspension period has passed, if the certificate has not been enabled, it becomes definitively revoked. When the certification body revokes or suspends a certificate, it must state this in the Certificate Revocation Lists (CRL), to make this fact public. These lists are public and must always be available.

Smart card: any card with integrated circuits that allow the execution of certain programmed logic.