Secured Signing’s Digital Signatures are legally binding Posted on November 28, 2017 - 3:24 pm by John Webster We are often asked if our digital signatures are legally binding and have the same legal effect as pen and paper signatures. The answer is yes, they are! Today, most countries worldwide have welcomed the use of electronic signatures as a way to move beyond a paper-based environment. They have passed legislation and regulations such as Electronic Transactions Acts regarding the signing of documents in electronic format. These Acts recognise the legality of digital signature and deem it to be a binding signature. These legislations also create a uniform standard for all electronic transactions and require the following criteria to be met for a digital signature to be binding: 1. Identification of signatory 2. The intent for signing 3. Signature creation is directly to the person signing and no one else 4. Signatory is in sole control of the signing process 5. Any changes to the signature or and changes to the document are detectable establishing data integrity. Whilst there are number of ways to sign electronically, Secured Signing is considered to be the ONLY digital signing platform that complies and exceeds these requirements. With Secured Signing’s trusted digital Signature solution, you will have peace of mind that you are signing digitally in the most secure way. As always, if you have specific questions, please get in touch and someone will contact you personally. ‘Til next time John Webster
How do you know Who was Behind the Keyboard when Signing Documents Online? Posted on November 15, 2017 - 9:19 am by John Webster Many of our customers have asked us how do you know who signed the document? Who was behind the keyboard?With security features such as two factor authentications, identification verification and SMS passcode, Secured Signing offers multiple levels of security to identify the signer.Personalized PKI X509 Digital Signature technology means that once a document has been signed the document content is sealed and any changes to the document it will invalidate the signature.To provide additional evidence to prove exactly who was behind the keyboard / device during the signing ceremony, we have created video confirmation as an add on feature, this records the person who is signing the document.So how does video confirmation work?To enable video confirmation with Secured Signing, you simply tick the box to add video confirmation to the signing process and the signee will be asked to record a video.It will activate the camera device and will capture a short video of the signer and require unique confirmation gestures to be met. The video has a unique URL link and to watch the video you have to enter a password. These 2 elements are embedded in the document and become part of the document itself.After signing you can watch the video and compare the person in the video with other forms of identification. Video confirmation provides you with additional evidence to prove the signers identity in case of a dispute.Digital Signature with Video confirmation provides the strongest digital signature solution in the market. Secured Signing are the first in the world to combines both technologies.With Secured Signing’s trusted digital Signature solution, you will have peace of mind that you are signing digitally in the most secure way. As always, if you have specific questions, please get in touch and someone will contact you personally.
Scanned signatures are a risk. Switch to Secured Signing Posted on August 30, 2017 - 5:12 pm by John Webster Tim Osborn, of Osborn Law, wrote recently in the Newcastle Herald about a court case that highlights the risks in relying on scanned signatures as a form of signing. It’s a reminder that if you need to sign, then you should sign with a tamper-proof digital signature that is unique to you and your document.Nothing else is worth the risk.The Legal Pitfall of “Paste-and-Click” SignaturesIn the case in question, an electronic image of the signature was readily accessible on the corporate network. The court held that documents signed by simply pasting the image into a document were not legally binding.It was not possible to demonstrate that the owner of the signature had personally applied their signature to the document or given their explicit consent to do so. The result was a loss of business and a costly court case—a disaster that could have been avoided by using a digital signature service like Secured Signing.Why Secured Signing is Superior to Scanned ImagesSigning a document using Secured Signing is a simple “click-to-sign” process that differs from scanned signatures in several critical ways.1. Automated Audit Logs and Record KeepingSecured Signing gives you an automated log of every action performed in the signing process. This is one of the key pieces of advice Mr. Osborn gives in his article: Good quality record keeping is invaluable. It demonstrates that a signed document is evidence of a legally binding agreement.By automating this log, your team doesn’t have to waste time keeping manual records of who did what and when.2. Robust Identity ValidationA key problem in the referenced court case was the inability to prove who actually applied the signature image. Secured Signing solves this by creating unique credentials for each signer that only they can access.For even higher stakes, you can add video confirmation to the process. This captures a brief recording of the person during the act of signing, creating a document that cannot be reasonably challenged.3. The Power of PKI-Based SecurityUnlike a mere graphical representation of a name, PKI-based digital signatures provide sophisticated methods to “seal” the document. This creates an irrevocable, unforgeable, and non-transferable link between the signer and the document, ensuring it is tamper-proof.Protect Your Business TodayInviting people to sign your documents with Secured Signing is quick, simple, inexpensive, and significantly reduces your legal risk.Help us spread the word. Share this with your friends and colleagues so they can enjoy the benefits of secure digital signatures. They can start signing online today with one of our Freeway evaluation accounts.
Know Your Customer (KYC) with Video Confirmation and Secured Signing Posted on August 8, 2017 - 1:13 am by John Webster It seems obvious but it bears repeating. Being absolutely clear on who is signing your document, not only makes good business sense, it is also a compliance requirement for many industries. Adding video confirmation to Secured Signing’s usual signing process ensures there can be no doubt about who signed your document. Even if your business is not subject to anti money laundering and counter terrorism financing (AML/CTF) legislation, robust customer due diligence practices will give you a competitive advantage, limit your exposure to the risk of loss and protect your business from damage to its reputation. It’s also just plain good sense. If there is ever a dispute, being able to simply and clearly demonstrate who signed your document will ensure you are best placed to recover monies owed or the return of equipment hired or leased. It is not just banks and other lenders that need to comply with the customer due diligence requirements of AML/CTF legislation. A recent mutual evaluation of Australia’s AML/CTF frameworks gave an overall pass mark, but highlighted key areas of concern. Research by AUSTRAC, the Australian government’s financial intelligence agency, indicates the outcomes around customer due diligence (CDD) vary from very high confidence to closer to 50% confidence in customer identity. This is an area that needs to improve as AUSTRAC rightly identifies that knowing your customer is “the cornerstone of an effective AML/CTF regime.” It is not surprising that regulatory reform proposals recommend both more explicit CDD requirements and the application of CDD requirements to a broader range of industries. Secured Signing’s video confirmation capability is a simple yet powerful tool to demonstrate you know exactly who is signing your documents. Customers expect to be able to transact business with you online. Inviting your customers to sign documents online with Secured Signing gives you the capability to meet this expectation of customer convenience while enjoying the security, authenticity and reliability that only tamper proof digital signatures can provide. Adding a video confirmation to your online signing process gives you complete confidence you know who you are dealing with and in particular who signed your agreement. When you ask customers to use video confirmation in the signing process, they are prompted to record a short video before they sign the document. The whole process takes no more than 10 seconds. The video records a specific gesture which is recorded in the Secured Signing document log and the video’s secure location is appended to the document and sealed with the PKI digital signature, ensuring the details cannot be modified without invalidating the signature. If your non face to face transactions don’t give you this degree of confidence in knowing who your customer is, it is time to closely evaluate the benefits Secured Signing can give you. The best first step is to open a free evaluation account and try video confirmation of signing yourself. Secured Signing’s website provides a lot more detail on how video confirmation works to deliver unquestionable confirmation of signer’s identity. As always, if you have specific questions, please get in touch and someone will contact you personally.
Video Confirmation of Identity a must have for financial services teams adopting eSignatures Posted on June 6, 2017 - 12:00 am by John Webster Financial services companies must know who is signing their documents. If there is any doubt that the correct person has signed the loan, agreement, authority to proceed, or whatever the document may be, the business leaves itself open to fraud, is exposed to unnecessary risk and faces the possibility of loss, not to mention becoming non-compliant with ‘Know Your Customer’ legislative requirements. Secured Signing provides the most robust verification of signer identity with the world first use of video confirmation as part of the signing process.Online signing by its nature provides much stronger confirmation of who is signing your documents than simply sending documents by post or email and taking it on faith they have been signed by the correct person. The addition of video recording of the signer, in a way that is uniquely and irrevocably tied to the document being signed, provides a degree of confidence in signer identity that cannot be reasonably challenged. It is a genuinely innovative approach that provides a degree of confidence in identity that is unmatched by any other signing method. It builds on the already robust authenticity of the underlying PKI Based digital signatures used by Secured Signing and existing additional identity verification tools such as two factor authentication and identity document searches.Let’s drill into how the process works to really appreciate how robust and reliable this new approach is.Video confirmation is quick and simple for the signer. They are asked to activate the camera on their device and record themselves performing specific gestures. It takes less than 10 seconds. The required gestures are specific to the document being signed, recorded in the document log and are analysed in real time. The nature of the verification and the changing requirements make it impossible to pass the verification using an image or pre-recorded video. Video confirmation provides much stronger confirmation of identity than static biometric verification such as facial or fingerprint recognition.The confirmation video is retained in a secure, encrypted repository. The signed document contains both a reference to the location of the video confirmation and the password required to access it. The tamper proof mechanisms inherent in PKI based digital signatures means neither the reference nor the password can be modified, without invalidating the signature. All documents signed with Secured Signing can be verified independently to confirm the document content is unchanged. Video confirmation enhances the inherent security and authenticity of PKI based digital signatures with the recorded video of the person signing the document.Video confirmation is available to all Secured Signing customers now. Once enabled in My Settings, the option to require a signer to provide video confirmation is available on the signing workflow screen. You can try Secured Signing, including video confirmation of identity for free. Register for your account now.‘Til next timeCheers, John
Secured Signing releases world first Video Confirmation of identity for eSignatures Posted on May 23, 2017 - 8:41 pm by John Webster Adding video confirmation to the eSigning process bolsters the independent signature verification of PKI user based digital signatures to deliver unparalleled document security and compliance for Secured Signing’s customers.Secured Signing expands its already impressive identity confirmation capabilities with a world first use of video confirmation as part of the online signing process to deliver signed documents that provide unchallengeable proof of agreement. Video confirmation in the signing process is live on Secured Signing today and available to all customers at no extra cost. This new method to confirm the identity of the signer continues a sustained release of new capabilities over the last year, making Secured Signing the most comprehensive and, certainly, the most innovative platform for online signing available in the market. “Our primary goal for Secured Signing is to make it quick and simple for the document signer while delivering the most secure, authentic and reliable outcome for the document owner,” says Mike Eyal, Founder and Managing Director of Secured Signing. “Video confirmation does exactly that, taking just a few seconds for the signer while giving the document owner a signed document that cannot be reasonably challenged.” Capturing video of the signer, in a way that is uniquely tied to the document being signed, is a more sophisticated use of biometric authentication than the fingerprint and image based methods that are now familiar. While much has been made of the bypasses for these static methods, a moving image is a much stronger authentication method. Secured Signing’s video confirmation also varies the specific confirmation process each time. Analysis of the video in real time for a match to the confirmation process determines an authentication pass or fail. Holding an image to the camera will not pass the video confirmation analysis. Video confirmation enhances the already sophisticated tamper proofing and signer verification mechanism inherent in Secured Signing’s use of PKI user based digital signatures. Put simply, Secured Signing is now the most secure way to sign a document online for financial services and contracts signing. The combination of ease of use for the signer and absolute compliance confidence for the document owner is without peer. About Secured SigningSecured Signing provides a comprehensive and secure SaaS digital signature service that delivers a full range of form completion and eSigning capabilities combining advanced personalized X509 PKI Digital Signature technology with easy-to-use, simple-to-deploy, compliant solutions. Secured Signing enables its users to utilize smartphones, PCs, any tablet device and any browser, to capture their graphical signature, fill-in, sign, seal and verify documents anywhere, anytime. The solution streamlines business processes, cuts back on expenses, expedites delivery cycles, improves staff efficiency and enhances customer service in a green environment.