Security Features of Digital Signatures for the Modern Age

In this article we’ll give you an overview of how digital signatures work, why they are important for security purposes and what the future holds. We’ll also talk about what electronic digital signatures do and why they should be used for much more than just contracts.

Your digital signature software can help you answer these questions securely through a secure and comprehensive, compliant process. Once you have developed the security features you need to protect your data, the next step is to ensure that your electronic signatures remain compliant. Digital signatures are an excellent way to ensure the authenticity, integrity and non-refusal of data; as long as the requirements are met, industry best practices are followed and the private key is not compromised. Legally binding digital signatures can help your organization achieve this progress.

Digital signatures are a powerful tool for ensuring cybersecurity, but they have a disadvantage. There is currently no solution to this problem, which is a fundamental obstacle to the introduction of digital signatures. Some fear that this disadvantage could undermine the value of their technology and their ability to secure their data.

While it is easy to say that digital signatures protect documents from unauthorized alteration, there is no guarantee that they cannot be manipulated. This is a major security problem: anyone who suspects that their key has been compromised must revoke the digital certificate that connects them to their public key and have a new one issued or have their certificate revoked. Although the ability to sign and secure documents has many advantages, it would be a huge risk if the key used for the digital signature ever fell into the wrong hands. 

Electronic signatures such as passwords and credit card numbers are also a major problem, as a digital signature is so closely linked to an electronic signature that, as usual, no one can agree on the nomenclature. However, that’s why using a proper digital signature software is key to better securing your organization.

As with almost every aspect of cryptography, digital signatures depend on careful protection and management of the key. Relying on a digital signature means that you have to assume that the signer is responsible for the signature created with their key. This is necessary because otherwise the digital signatories would be worthless: a signer could simply refuse someone’s request to sign a document that is not in their favour, or they could create a forged signature without knowing the private key (or vice versa). In other words, the signer must be responsible with the signatures they create from their private key, otherwise fake signatures can be created without knowing it.

Digital signatures do not offer rejection, meaning that a signatory can claim that they have not signed the message, even if they claim that their private key remains secret. Since the digital signature is created by the private keys of the signatories, they cannot refuse the signed data because no one else can have the key.

Electronic documents can be difficult to verify, as the digital signature does not offer the same level of security as the physical document itself unless it comes from a proven software. Fortunately, ArcSign has the ability to issue digital certificates that are authenticated with digital signatures from a certification authority. On top of that, they allow you to easily send documents that require a digital signature to your clients via email.

A certificate bound to a digital signature cannot be simply copied or shared and is subject to the same encryption as the physical document itself. Invisible digital signatures can be used if you do not have a signature or do not want to display it, but need to provide a physical copy of the document, such as email address, telephone number or address.

Signatories of a digital signature document do not have to rely on the continued presence of a provider in the market to verify its authenticity. When searching for a signature solution, it is important to ensure that it is based on digital signatures and that the identity of the signatory can be verified.

For this reason, it is likely that the future of digital signatures is rosy, but it is important to recognize that newly trained analysts often overlook the importance and centrality of digital signatures for cybersecurity. There are many different theories about how digital signatures provide security and how they provide that security, which is largely due to both the way they are marketed and the way they are marketed. The concepts involved are not so different that it can be confusing, either in the fact that they have been described in this way, or, more importantly, in terms of their marketing and regulation.