Online Fax
Digital Signatures: What Are They and How Do They Work?
Compare All PlansStart Faxing Now
Thanks to the adoption of digital workflows and processes in workplaces, you can sign and send important documents using a computer or tablet. As these documents must remain secure and legal, you can use digital signatures to ensure their authenticity and integrity. In this blog post, we’ll explore digital signatures, the benefits of using them versus traditional signatures, how they work, and how you can use them effectively.
Understanding Digital Signatures
Before you can start using digital signatures in your business workflow, it’s essential to understand what they are.
What is a Digital Signature?
A digital signature is a way to sign documents electronically using enhanced security features and a computer or mobile device. Digital signatures carry the same authority as handwritten signatures.
5 Key Benefits of Using Digital Signatures
Are you curious about the benefits of using digital rather than handwritten signatures? Below, we’ll cover five key benefits of digital signatures and how they can improve your business workflow.
What are the Benefits of Digital Signatures?
- Security: Digital signatures provide better protection against signature tampering and help ensure document integrity.
- Environmentally friendly: When you can sign documents digitally, you don’t have to print and mail physical documents. This saves ink, toner, and paper.
- On-the-go convenience: Digital signatures allow you to sign documents remotely from any location using an internet-connected device.
- Reduce manual tasks: When you can automate the document signing process, you reduce the manual work you must accomplish daily.
- Legal validity: More than just convenience, digital signatures offer legally binding validity to your documents in many areas.
How Digital Signatures Work
Understanding how digital signatures work can make it easier for you to select a digital document provider and get approval from internal stakeholders.
How Do Digital Signatures Work?
- First, you upload your document to a software like eFax. The software solution creates a document hash and uses your private key to encrypt the hash. This creates a unique digital signature for your document.
- After you send your document to the recipient, the receiving software uses your public key to decrypt the signature. Then, the recipient’s system recalculates the hash and ensures it matches the decrypted value.
- If the hashes match, the document and its signature have not been tampered with. This ensures the signature is valid and confirms the document’s authenticity and integrity.
3 Different Classes of Digital Signatures
There are three different classes of digital signatures that each offer increasing levels of identity. Your business security needs will help you decide which class of digital signature support is right for you.
Classes and Types of Digital Signatures
Simple Signatures
This type of signature verifies only the signer’s identity and captures the individual’s intent to sign the document. Simple signatures don’t always guarantee that the document hasn’t been altered after signing. They also don’t capture the time that the document was signed. For example, clicking an “I Agree” checkbox on a software download window captures your approval to download the software but doesn’t guarantee that the software is secure.
Advanced Electronic Signatures (AdES)
AdES digital signatures verify the identity of the signer, the content origin, and the time the document was signed. By adding these crucial elements, AdES goes beyond simple identity validation. An example of AdES is signing a contract with a company online. These types of signatures ensure that the company is legitimate and that the agreement was not altered after you signed it.
Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES)
QES provides the highest security and legal validity for digital signatures, as they require a qualified certificate from a trusted certificate authority (CA). QES are often considered equivalent to handwritten signatures, and they provide the highest level of assurance regarding the identity, data integrity, and origin of the signer. For example, legally binding forms like government forms and financial transactions use QES.
How to Create Legally Binding Digital Signatures
Now that you know what digital signatures are and why you might want to use them over ink and paper signatures, learn how to create legally binding digital signatures.
To do so, use an authorized electronic document signing solution to create a secure and legal digital signature, then use the digital signature to complete your documents.
The right solution for your business depends on your business needs, but most solutions offer features like bulk signing, customizable signing options and varied levels of authorization and validation.
Here are a few different ways you can create a digital signature:
Draw a Signature
You can use your finger on a smartphone or tablet screen to draw a signature. Then, you can save the signature and use it on documents to sign them.
Use a Digital Signing Pad
If you can access a digital signing pad, you can use the stylus pen and draw your digital signature. This option is useful when you need your digital signature to be recognizable as the one you use on paper documents.
Type Your Signature into a Template
If your electronic signature solution provides templates, you can select a style you like and use it to create a custom digital signature.
Upload a Handwritten Signature
You can take a picture of your physical signature on your mobile device and then upload it to the digital signature software you’re using. Once you save the signature, you can use it to sign your documents digitally.
Common Use Cases of Digital Signatures
Anyone can benefit from using digital signatures. Some businesses that may find digital signatures particularly useful are legal, financial, healthcare, government, and supply chain entities. Below, we’ll cover common use cases of digital signatures for these types of businesses.
Use Cases for Digital Signatures
1. Law Offices
Legal entities like law offices can use digital signatures for lawyers and clients to sign agreements, non-disclosures, leases, and more.
2. Financial Institutions
Banks can use digital signatures to allow customers to sign loan documents, insurance paperwork, tax documents, and more.
3. Healthcare
Doctor’s offices and hospitals can use a patient portal with digital signatures to let patients sign consent forms and new patient paperwork. Providers can digitally sign prescriptions and referrals.
4. Government Forms
Government entities like the IRS can allow you to sign your tax documents with digital signatures. You can also sign social security documents online, eliminating the need to mail, fax, or deliver information to a local Social Security office.
5. Supply Chain Management
Businesses in the supply chain management industry can use digital signatures to validate purchase orders and invoices on the go. This enables you to get work done during work travel or when you’re out of the office.
eFax: An Efficient Way to Sign Documents Electronically
eFax is a secure and efficient platform that supports your digital document signing. eFax offers you an easy way to sign and send your documents electronically and provides these additional features:
- Security and reliability: eFax boasts robust encryption and security protocols to protect sensitive data. These enhanced security options ensure your documents remain compliant with standards like HIPAA.
- Cloud-based access: Get access to your documents anywhere, anytime. Cloud storage means you can upload documents from your smartphone and send them anywhere you have internet access.
- Workflow efficiency: When you don’t have to print, sign and mail documents, your workflow efficiency increases across your team.
- Boosted collaboration: With eFax, you can easily share documents across your team and collaborate in real-time.
FAQs About Digital Signatures
Are you curious about digital signatures? Review these frequently asked questions and their answers below.
A digital signature is a legally valid way of signing documents. Its purpose is to ensure the authenticity of your documents. Because digital signatures use key encryption, you can be sure that digitally signed documents are valid.
Use eFax or a similar document signing solution to add a digital signature to a PDF. You’ll need to create an account and upload the document, then create a signature in your account. Once you have a signature, you can add it to the PDF.
You can draw a signature on a phone or tablet, use a digital signing pad, type your signature into a template, or upload a handwritten signature.
Yes, the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN) and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) make electronic signatures legally binding. Under the act, any electronic signature can be binding if:
- All parties record an intent to sign the document.
- All parties agree to sign electronically.
- The signature is recorded electronically.
- The signed document is retained and reproducible by both parties.
Electronic signature refers generally to any method of signing a document electronically. A digital signature is a more specific term that refers to an electronic signature that uses advanced cryptographic encryption techniques to authenticate the signer’s identity. Digital signatures ensure the document was not tampered with after you sign it. Digital signatures are most valuable for sensitive documents.
Online Fax
