The Requirements

For the validation of an electronically signed document, there are six key aspects:

• The quality of the acquired signature (the signer’s identification mark).
• The secure transmission of the signature and its secure storage in the document (the signature can never be copied or used in any other way).
• The inseparable combination of the identification mark (the signature) with the content of the document, the way it was at the moment of signing (i.e. later document modifications should render the signature invalid).
• The self-protection (in the legal sense) of the company implementing this system should be guaranteed, i.e. the system of the company and/or its employees should not be able to decipher the biometric data of the signature or extract it from the document to insert it into another. Otherwise, it cannot be proved that the signer really signed this document on the basis of this evidence (analogous to paper).
• The use of revision-safe document formats such as PDF(a) or TIFF in order to secure that the electronic document can be opened and read for many years.
• A technology- and manufacturer-independent verifiability of the identification mark (i.e. the signature). This is necessary on the one hand to be able to present comprehensible and credible evidence in court and on the other hand to have the security that the documents signed electronically today can also be used in the far future.

To fulfil these requirements, you need both secure software and a corresponding secure, high-quality signature pad.

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