Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

Digital Signature Standard
     
         The {NIST}'s {standard} for {digital
        signatures} (authenticating both a message and the signer)
        that was first announced in 1991.  It is based on an
        {algorithm} using {discrete logarithms}, which is a variant of
        the {Elgamal algorithm} with Schnorr's improvements.  DSS's
        security is currently considered very strong - comparable to
        {RSA}.  It is estimated that DSS's 1024-bit keys would take
        1.4E16 {MIPS}-years to crack.
     
        (1995-11-16)