Im a information science student, so i really have no backroung knowledge in compter science. I understand the basic process behind digital signatures but thats as far as it goes. I have a presentation to give on friday. Ill copy and paste it here. If you can help, please do. Im at wits end. I dont know what any the symbols mean.

 

 

The Digital Signature Standard is computed using the following equations:

 

r = (gk mod p) (mod q)

s = (h(M) − xr)/k (mod q)

 

Describe what the various symbols represent.

 

(b) Write down and explain the equation(s) used to verify a signature.

 

© The standard specifies that r must lie strictly between 0 and q. What might

go wrong if an implementation does not check this?

 

(d) A designer decides to economise on code size by omitting the hash function computation, that is, replacing h(M) by M. What are the consequences of this optimisation?

Describe what the various symbols represent.

 

You might start here...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Signature_Algorithm