Were I to ask you what a handwritten signature looks like, with an air of confidence will you grab a pen and scrawl your name on a piece of paper, or, with a flourish, will you grip your thumb and fingers together and, sign your name in the air? 'Voila!’
Digital transformation has been a critical focus for businesses and institutions prior to the pandemic. Digital documents and e-signatures are a crucial part of this shift. The recent global crisis has served to hasten the implementation of such solutions; organizations have expedited the transition to enable remote work environments and transactional activity online.
As certain industries are moving ahead with digital transformation projects, online signing processes are a step forward in optimizing business practices.
As defined by Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 (eIDAS), which took effect on 1 July 2016, an electronic signature creation device is software or hardware that has been configured to generate an electronic signature. However, for such a device to be considered a secure signature creation device (SSCD), it must meet the specifications that are stipulated in Annex II of eIDAS
Achieve Non-Repudiation of Origin (NRO) and Non-Repudiation of Emission (NRE)
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of any economy. In the European Union (EU), SMEs represent 99% of all businesses and account for an astounding 85% of job growth. Providing the best environment for these SMEs to thrive and prosper thus becomes vital for any country. The EU has a tradition of promoting entrepreneurship and leads the pack regarding ease of doing business, access to finance, a strong legal framework, a robust regulatory environment, and a variety of other support structures.
This article explains the Signature Activation Protocol in the context of eIDAS-compliant central signing. It sheds lights on its purposes and outlines its implementation for remote/central signature servers.
The COVID-19 pandemic put many industries to the test as they found alternate ways to serve their customers and managed to survive the crisis. The banking and finance sector may have already been ahead of the curve with digitalization.
National digital signature schemes that utilize remote signing technology can achieve very high usage rates, whereas Trust Service Providers and Banks (who might use the schemes) also tend to reach millions if not tens of millions of signatures per year - with peaks exceeding hundreds per minute. In this article we discuss the key elements for designing a scalable architecture to deliver a digital signing service under a high Service Level Agreement (SLA) with high throughput and low latency.
