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Stefan Hansen
With the advent of comprehensive regulatory standards for digital signatures, remote electronic signatures within the EU is now possible for international contracts and transactions to get signed without delay, saving thousands of €/£/$ in travel expenses, reducing paperwork, enabling the processing of documents more easily and securely and environmentally friendly.
The European Union (EU) regulation for Electronic Identification and Trust Services (eIDAS) has significantly impacted the customer journey with e-commerce and digitization of transactions using secure digital signature solutions. There is a strong drive towards remote signing technology, compliant with eIDAS legislation, for electronic signature usage across Europe. The eIDAS standards classify two types of secure digital signatures
In the most basic terms, a Qualified Electronic Signature has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature and can be used as evidence in court.
The major growth drivers of the digital signature market include:
- reduced business operational costs,
- superior customer experience, and
- enhanced security and control.
Therefore, the eIDAS legislation paves the way for accepting digital and electronic signatures, which has many advantages for both consumers and service providers.
The realization of regulatory standards that legally support digital signatures is a strong business driver, but if not carefully approached, it can add significant overheads to business operations and does not necessarily result in better security. It is critical that compliance requirements and the processes needed to achieve them are built into a solution from the outset.
The white paper, ‘eIDAS Compliant Remote eSigning,’ facilitates a high-level overview of the eIDAS regulation and how a business can deliver QES services to its customers. The paper explores the business drivers and wider market potential. It describes Cryptomathic’s approach to deploying remote signing technology in terms of user experience, security, legal acceptance, scalability, and the types of business models available for the most cost-effective solution.
References and Further Reading
- Selected articles on Authentication (2014-today), by Heather Walker, Luis Balbas, Guillaume Forget, Jan Kjaersgaard, Dawn M. Turner and more
- Selected articles on Electronic Signing and Digital Signatures (2014-today), by Ashiq JA, Guillaume Forget, Jan Kjaersgaard , Peter Landrock, Torben Pedersen, Dawn M. Turner, Tricia Wittig and more
- REGULATION (EU) No 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (2014) by the European Parliament and the European Commission
- Recommendations for the Security of Internet Payments (Final Version) (2013), by the European Central Bank
- Draft NIST Special Publication 800-63-3: Digital Authentication Guideline (2016), by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA.
- NIST Special Publication 800-63-2: Electronic Authentication Guideline (2013), by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA.
- Security Controls Related to Internet Banking Services (2016), Hong Kong Monetary Authority
Image: European Flags, courtesy of FutureAtlas.com, Flickr (CC BY 2.0)