A system for authenticating digital data capable of preventing change or
disguise of data by improvement or interchange in case of no
confidentiality in the data itself so as to maintain the data. When
writing digital data from an input device to a memory and transferring
the digital data from the memory to a receiving device, device
authentication is performed between the input device and the memory and
between the memory and the receiving device respectively. At the same
time, when writing digital data to the memory, in the case of
implementing on the digital data an electronic signature by a one-way
hash function and also reading from the memory and transferring the
digital data, the implemented electronic signature is decrypted so as to
transfer the digital data after ensuring that it has not been changed
since it was recorded. Thus, it is possible to prevent change or disguise
of data by improvement or interchange in case of no confidentiality in
the data itself so as to maintain the data.