Code signing

Software that has an attached digital signature that helps to prevent software from being installed that has been tampered with or otherwise corrupted. Before the program or driver is distributed to the user it is encrypted with a digital signature that is decrypted and verified before the program is installed on the computer. Once verified the software program or driver is installed on to the computer; however, if this process fails the user will be prompted with a failure error.

Also see: Digital signature, Security definitions