Electronic signature technologies: a tutorial.

• Author: Minihan, Jim
• Position: Cover Story

AT THE CORE

THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES:

* acceptance, security, integrity, and authentication issues in electronic signature technologies

* what qualifies an electronic signature as authentic

* the role of public key infrastructure (PKI)

A step forward in one area of technology occasionally results in a leap forward in another. Just as the keystone in an arch allows the arch to carry the load of a bridge without having to build an entire supporting wall, one technology can bring others to finally complete an otherwise incomplete infrastructure. Electronic signature technology could well be such a keystone as it addresses the limited acceptance of electronic document and content management systems.

For several years, electronic document management systems have struggled to reach broad market acceptance as necessary infrastructure. While some of the blame for this lack of acceptance can be placed on the fact that many products lack one important component or another, the real reasons are rarely discussed. Clearly, there is little sense in investing so heavily in computers and networks merely to pay lip service to an ability to create, distribute, use, and manage our documents in a purely digital environment -- and never achieve that result. Why have so many spent so much to put in place a digital potential that still requires much of our work product to be printed? Even if we don't want to have to print it!

The real issues are acceptance, security, integrity, and authentication. These have proved to be the four horseman of the digital document apocalypse.

Acceptance: No one wants to be the first to have a contract denied effect or a court defense smashed because they relied on the electronic version of an all-important document that never saw a printer or the inside of a file cabinet. This most heinous horseman exists because of his cohorts.

Security: In the digital world, the perception is that information can too easily be compromised. Consequently, the really important documents must be converted to paper where they can be entrusted to the rock-solid security of file cabinets for storage and the postal service -- or better yet, commercial express mail carriers -- for transport.

Integrity: How does one know that the message or information that was sent was exactly what was received? We rest assured that no one could ever possibly manipulate paper-based information.

Authentication: We can sign printed documents to establish them as authentic and add ceremony to the fact that we agree with the contents. The important act of signing a document is well established in English common law. Even with the best of fine-tip pens, we would have a hard time scribbling our names on electrons.

The irony here suggests that paper documents were never immune from any of these demons. Nevertheless, the acceptance of electronic documents has been thoroughly hobbled by their existence -- real or imagined. Happily, the forces of change are gathering strength.

Relevant Legislation

On June 30, 2000, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, mere feet away from the location where the Constitution of the United States was signed in Philadelphia, signed the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act. His first signature was done by the traditional pen and ink method since the law that would be signed was necessary to legitimize what he would do next. Using the password "Buddy" (his dog's name) the president then used a smart card encoded with a numerical string that was his digital signature. By this action, a major step forward was taken to advance the use of electronic signatures to complete transactions in a fully electronic environment. With the stroke of both pen and digital device, the keystone was set. This allows a new bridge to be built between a history of pen and paper as the exclusive safe harbor for official documents and our digital future where paper is a convenient viewer but no longer the only legally accepted medium for document-based information.

This federal legislation is not the only change pushing electronic documents and signatures forward. The National Council of Commissioners for Uniform Law has had growing acceptance of the Uniform Electronic...