Glossary

WM Keeper

Client software used in the WebMoney Transfer system

WM-ID

A personal unique twelve–digit number of a WebMoney member

WebMoney units

Universal units used for payments in the WebMoney Transfer system

WM purse

E-account used to conduct transactions with WebMoney-units. A purse number consists of twelve digits and a letter prefix. The purse number is user’s credentials.

WM purse type

Letter prefix in the purse number indicating type of WM-units kept in the purse.

Underwriter

A commercial or financial institution that provides depositing and withdrawing of funds in the WebMoney Transfer system on the instructions of WM-ID holders

WM Passport

A digital certificate issued to a WebMoney Transfer member by the verification center based on supplied identification and contact information. WM passport shows status of a WebMoney member.

Inboicel

A bill demanding payment for services or goods you have received, work that has been done, etc. It has number, amount and purpose.

Message

A written piece of information that you send to another WebMoney member. The WebMoney Transfer certification center ensures authenticity and integrity of sent data.

Digital signature

Digital signature is a string of binary digits. Digital signature technology grew out of public key cryptography. In public key cryptography, two keys are used - a private key and a public key. Digital signature is a way of authenticating that an electronic message really came from the person it claims to have come and it has not been altered. Digital signature is an analog to a traditional manual signature, though it has certain peculiarities. The digital signature algorithm provides the capability to generate and verify signatures. Signature generation makes use of a private key to generate a digital signature. Signature verification makes use of a public key which corresponds to, but is not the same as, the private key. An altered message cannot be re-signed without the private key. Thus, if a message is digitally signed, the digital signature ensures the identity of the signatory and integrity of the data.

Digital signature verification

A cryptographic process of verifying the integrity of an electronic message and authenticating the identity of its sender based on the private - public key technology.

Key encryption

A cryptographic technology that uses two keys - a public key known to everyone and a private or secret key known only to the particular user. The private key is saved on the user’s PC (on hard disk, diskette or smart card). The public key is saved on the system server. The private key is used to generate a digital signature. The public key is used to verify it.

Authentication

A way of verifying the authenticity of data. Authentication assures the receiver of the integrity of data and its source (where or whom it came from). SSL authentication is based on digital signatures. Digital signature can be verified using client’s public key, whereas it should be generating using secret-key encryption. Secret (or private) key is known only to the client (the sender of data).

Certification

A way to verify the authenticity of informational objects by a third party taking no part in digital data transmission. Authentication can be used to verify the authenticity of a message source when two objects are taking part in data transmission. But these objects must exchange certain key information before the information transmission. Key information includes encryption algorithm and key. Problems may occur when it is necessary to authenticate an object that has not participated in data transmission before. The only way to solve this problem is to empower a third party with the right to authenticate this object. This third party is called a certification center. The certification center authenticates the object by exchanging data with it.

Certification center

A hardware and software system, a service of digital identification, which verifies and issues digital certificates and provides information on revoked certificates.

Certificate revocation list

A list of WM-IDs with revoked digital certificates.

Certificate

A digital certificate is a file that includes a variety of information (identity data of the certificate holder and his public key) signed using the Certification Center’s secret key. Each system member has a certificate of the Certification Center public key, and each member can authenticate certificates of other members. There are digital certificates of three types: server certificate, personal certificate and certification center certificate.

Personal certificate

Certification center issues a personal certificate to each cooperating object whose authenticity it should verify. Personal certificate includes information on its holder (for example, WM-ID, email) and private key. Personal certificate is used to authenticate its holder.

Certification center certificate

A file used to verify the authenticity of certification center. It is used to sign server and personal certificates. Certification Center Certificate should be stored on the server and on a client’s PC for the server and client’s browser to be able to verify the authenticity of signed certificates.

Server certificate 

A file used to say the web site really belongs to who it says it belongs to. It also enables encryption.

Certificate store  

An area on your computer’s hard drive where digital certificates are stored.