Wet ink signatures may never entirely fall out of use, but one trend today is evident: digital methods for signing documents have entered a new growth stage. With rising demand to support work outside the office and in the new "hybrid" workplace format, signing physical documents by hand is no longer feasible as a primary method for authorization. The distances are too great and the transit times too long. Today's environment demands digital signing.
When you select tools to work with esignatures, security must be at the forefront of your considerations. Protecting a signature’s integrity is vital, but there is more to the issue than simple validation. The legal enforceability of the signature is a consideration, too. Luckily, today's professional tools comply with the ESIGN Act, which makes digital signatures legal.
However, businesses must dig deeper. The nature of electronic documents necessitates a more intensive focus on security—otherwise, it would be hard to trust electronically signed documents. Advanced encryption technology and modern verification services step in to fill this need for security.
Why Do Businesses Today Need More Secure Solutions?
Without technology at work behind the scenes, it would be a challenge to know whether esignatures on a document were legitimate or forgeries. Likewise, it would be impossible to tell whether someone tampered with the document's contents after signing. Today's technologies provide important guarantees concerning:
- The identities of those who signed the document.
- The application of a signature by each actual party involved.
- The tamper-proof nature of the signed document.
Signing software can use several available solutions to achieve certainty about the above. This solution includes public key cryptography and digital certificates issued and verified by a central authority. Both rely on rigorous methods of validating signatures. Public-key cryptography, for example, allows for the secure signing of a document and a guaranteed method of verifying that the document is the same as when it was signed. Learn more in our full post on the ins and outs of esignatures and their cryptographic technology.
Related Post: Certificates for eSignatures: What Do I Need—and Why?
How SignDoc Delivers Exceptional High-Grade Security
In Kofax SignDoc, a leading solution for digital document signing, users can enjoy access to all these advanced security technologies in one convenient package. In our latest release, SignDoc features new integration with GlobalSign, one of the web's oldest Certificate Authorities. Acting as a provider of both public key infrastructure and digital certificate signing, GlobalSign support gives users instant access to a trusted signature solution.
Using SignDoc and the GlobalSign authority, you can produce signed documents that others can easily authenticate. Because SignDoc supports the Adobe Approved Trust List via GlobalSign, documents you sign will have the famous "green checkmark" when viewed in the appropriate PDF software. This signifies that the document is both trusted and verified.
Today's work demands flexibility, and esignatures offer an incredible opportunity to speed up key workflows. Explore GlobalSign today and see how you can combine best practices with cutting-edge software for security and speed.
