Final answer:
A digital signature is created by encrypting information with the creator's private key, ensuring the sender's authentication. It is similar to the transposition cipher method used historically, for example in the Zimmerman Telegram, but operates with modern encryption techniques.
Step-by-step explanation:
Information encrypted with the creator's private key that is used to authenticate the sender is called a Digital Signature. This concept is a cornerstone in cryptographic and security practices. When a digital signature is applied to a piece of information, it ensures that the information originated from the known sender (non-repudiation) and that it has not been tampered with during transmission (integrity).
The process typically involves the creator using their private key to encrypt a message digest, which is a hashed version of the message created by a hashing algorithm. The recipient can then use the sender's public key to decrypt the message digest and verify it against the message's own hash to ensure its authenticity. This concept is paralleled by historical cryptographic methods such as the transposition cipher that was famously used in incidents like the Zimmerman Telegram incident. A transposition cipher, including those driven by keywords, rearranges the letters in plaintext based on rules defined by a key, fundamentally altering the data's organization without changing the actual data itself, as with encryption.