Patent ID: 7513411

Claim:
An apparatus for granting electronic signature to a data, comprising: a database that stores authorization data corresponding to identification data; an identification-data acquiring unit that acquires identification data for identifying an owner of a secret key that is used to create the electronic signature; an image-data processing unit that includes a hash value calculator that calculates a hash value from the data that is used with the secret key to create the electronic signature; an authorization-data acquiring unit that acquires the authorization data corresponding to the identification data from the database; a signature-granting determining unit that determines whether to grant the electronic signature to the data based on the authorization data acquired; and an integrated circuit (IC) device interface, wherein a removable integrated circuit (IC) device connected to the apparatus through the IC device interface acquires the hash value from the apparatus and creates the electronic signature using the hash value and the secret key and outputs the electronic signature to the apparatus.