How Secured Signing Delivers NIST IAL2 Identity Verification

If you’ve ever wondered how a digital signature can hold up in court the same way a wet-ink signature does, the answer usually comes down to one thing: how confidently you can prove the signer is who they say they are.

That’s where NIST IAL2 comes in.

What is NIST IAL2 Identity Verification?

Identity Assurance Level 2 (IAL2) is a standard set by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), laid out in Special Publication 800-63. It defines how confident an organisation can be that a person is genuinely who they claim to be — and it sits in the middle of three tiers:

• IAL1 — The person simply states who they are. No evidence required.
• IAL2 — The person’s identity is backed by real evidence and matched to them personally.
• IAL3 — Identity is verified in person, or remotely under supervision with specialised equipment.

For businesses operating online, IAL2 strikes the perfect balance. It offers incredibly strong security and fraud prevention without requiring signers to visit a physical office or use specialized government hardware.

How IAL2 verification works with Secured Signing

Under the hood, IAL2 relies on three pieces of evidence from the signer:

1. Personal details — name, date of birth, address
2. Identity evidence — a government-issued photo ID
3. A biometric check — typically a live selfie, matched against the ID

Secured Signing’s ID Verification feature builds this straight into the signing journey. Instead of sending a document and hoping the right person opens it, the signer is asked to verify who they are, ID scan, biometric match, and 3D liveness check, and all, before their signature is captured. Every step is logged in a detailed audit trail, so the final signed document carries proof not just of what was agreed, but who agreed to it.

For your business, that means no separate identity-check tool bolted on the side. Verification and signing happen in one seamless flow.