Electronic Signature

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Products & Solutions Our Core Focus E-Signatures E-Seals Mobile Apps Connector Apps PKI Integrations SharePoint Salesforce Word Hot Topics Remote Signing eIDAS Compliance Bulk Signing Local Signing Long-Term Validation XML Signing Industries Learn More Security Legality Interoperability

Features Why SigningHub Features Comparison Why We Are Different? Electronic Signing Benefits Who Can benefit? E-Sign Documents How It Works Quick Tour How to videos What Are Electronic Signatures? What Are Digital Signatures? Learn More Basic Signatures Advanced Signatures Qualified Signatures eBooks Questions to Ask Suppliers

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Products & Solutions Our Core Focus E-Signatures E-Seals Mobile Apps Connector Apps PKI Integrations SharePoint Salesforce Word Hot Topics Remote Signing eIDAS Compliance Bulk Signing Local Signing Long-Term Validation XML Signing Industries Learn More Security Legality Interoperability

Features Why SigningHub Features Comparison Why We Are Different? Electronic Signing Benefits Who Can benefit? E-Sign Documents How It Works Quick Tour How to videos What Are Electronic Signatures? What Are Digital Signatures? Learn More Basic Signatures Advanced Signatures Qualified Signatures eBooks Questions to Ask Suppliers

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Developer

Support SaaS Service Status FAQs Terms of Service ISMS Policy Quality Policy Privacy Policy System Requirements Trusted CA List Trusting a private PKI Knowledge Base Brand Guidelines Live Chat Live Chat

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Products & Solutions Our Core Focus E-Signatures E-Seals Mobile Apps Connector Apps PKI Integrations SharePoint Salesforce Word Hot Topics Remote Signing eIDAS Compliance Bulk Signing Local Signing Long-Term Validation XML Signing Industries Learn More Security Legality Interoperability

Features Why SigningHub Features Comparison Why We Are Different? Electronic Signing Benefits Who Can benefit? E-Sign Documents How It Works Quick Tour How to videos What Are Electronic Signatures? What Are Digital Signatures? Learn More Basic Signatures Advanced Signatures Qualified Signatures eBooks Questions to Ask Suppliers

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Understanding the different levels and types

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What are Electronic Signatures?

Anyone new to this area can be easily confused about what constitutes an electronic signature and how different types of e-signatures compare in terms of evidential power and legality.

At a basic level any mark on an electronic document can be used to capture the signer’s intent to approve or accept the contents of that document. The form of the “mark” or how it was created is not important. What is important is proving who made the mark and that the document was not changed subsequently.

Electronic signatures are categorised as

Click-to-Sign Signatures Basic Electronic Signatures

Advanced Electronic Signatures Qualified Signatures

These signature types and the level of security they provide are explained in more detail below.

Download our free Guide to choosing the right type of e-signature

Electronic signatures are categorized as

Click-to-Sign Signatures

Basic Electronic Signatures

Advanced Electronic Signatures

Qualified Signatures

These signature types and the level of security they provide are explained in more detail below.

Download our free Guide to choosing the right type of e-signature

Click-to-Sign Signatures

These include tick boxes, e-squiggles, scanned images, and typed names. In this category of signature there is no cryptographic protection of the document.  So such signatures are not enough to provide strong evidence of who signed or even to protect the document from subsequent change. They can be easily cut/pasted from one document to another. We do not recommend the use of such signatures on their own.

Basic Electronic Signatures

These involve the signer applying their hand-signature mark on the document and then this being protected with a cryptographic digital signature. With basic e-signatures, the crypto digital signature is created using a server-held signing key, e.g. belonging to the service provider organisation, hence we refer to this as a “witness” digital signature. In SigningHub this witness digital signature is applied every time an e-signature mark is applied by the user and cryptographically binds this mark to the document and protects the document from any subsequent changes, thereby ensuring data integrity. This is a long-term signature that includes a trusted timestamp.

Normally basic e-signatures may or may-not require the user to be registered and their identity validated as a part of this. Regardless of whether or not users are registered with basic e-signatures the signer’s identity is not verifiable directly from the signed document.

Learn more

Advanced and Qualified eSignatures

Advanced Electronic Signatures (AES) and Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) are fully supported in SigningHub. AES and QES provide the highest level of trust and assurance because these use unique signing keys for every signer. This directly links the user’s identity to the signed document such that anyone can verify it on their own using an industry standard PDF reader. Note technically these are also referred to as “digital signatures” rather than “e-signatures”.

Furthermore, as the signer has sole control of their unique private signing key this ensures non-repudiation, i.e. even the service provider cannot be held responsible for creating the signature. SigningHub complies with eIDAS regulations for AES and QES using locally held credentials, such as a National eID card, or importantly remote signing where the user’s key is held securely, server-side. Remote signing has many benefits including the ability to sign from any machine without use of specialist devices like smartcards, hardware tokens and readers.

The advantage of using AES/QES is that they show exactly who signed the document.

QES are a more trusted version of AES because they require the highest levels of security for the protection of the user’s signing key and also a formal registration process for the user to verify their identity by a qualified Certificate Authority. From a legal perspective QES can be considered even stronger than handwritten signatures as the burden of proof shifts to the signer to prove that they did not sign!

Learn More

Advanced Electronic Signatures

Qualified Electronic Signatures

Advanced Electronic Signatures

Qualified Electronic Signatures

Get Started Now

SigningHub provides a quick, easy digital Signature platform for sending, viewing,Signing and returning your e-documents.

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Comparing different types of Electronic Signatures

“Click to Sign”

Basic e-Signatures

Advanced eSignatures

Qualified eSignatures

User Authentication

User Consent

User’s Signature Mark

Document Integrity

Bind Signer’s ID to Doc

Certify Signature

Embedded Evidence

Long Term Verifiability

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Live Demos

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Live Demos

Audit Information

In addition to the evidence provided by the e-signature itself, SigningHub also provides additional evidence in the form of detailed audit information on all user actions that affect a document. This is available on screen and also as a digitally signed Workflow Evidence Report (PDF), which is made available to provide clear evidence of actions, at precise dates/times, IP addresses, authentication mechanisms, legal notices and signatures applied.

The transition to SigningHub’s e-signature solution has been very smooth. It’s really improved our signing process and made it much more efficient. It was standard for contracts to take a few days to come back but now it takes just a few hours.

Helen Wheeler Traffic Coordinator at Somo

The transition to SigningHub’s e-signature solution has been very smooth. It’s really improved our signing process and made it much more efficient. It was standard for contracts to take a few days to come back but now it takes just a few hours.

Helen Wheeler Traffic Coordinator at Somo

Download eBook – Choose the right type of eSignatures for your business

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What are Electronic Signatures?

What are Digital Signatures?

Security

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© Ascertia. All Rights Reserved. Ascertia is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company. Ascertia, SigningHub, ADSS Server and corresponding logos are the trademarks of Ascertia. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

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Products & Solutions Our Core Focus E-Signatures E-Seals Mobile Apps Connector Apps PKI Integrations SharePoint Salesforce Word Hot Topics Remote Signing eIDAS Compliance Bulk Signing Local Signing Long-Term Validation XML Signing Industries Learn More Security Legality Interoperability. Features Why SigningHub Features Comparison Why We Are Different? Electronic Signing Benefits Who Can benefit? E-Sign Documents How It Works Quick Tour How to videos What Are Electronic Signatures? What Are Digital Signatures? Learn More Basic Signatures Advanced Signatures Qualified Signatures eBooks Questions to Ask Suppliers. Marketplace. Developer. Support SaaS Service Status FAQs Terms of Service ISMS Policy Quality Policy Privacy Policy System Requirements Trusted CA List Trusting a private PKI Knowledge Base Brand Guidelines Live Chat Live Chat. Pricing. Company About Us Blog Partners Customers Contact Us. Login. Free Trial. Login Free Trial. Products & Solutions Our Core Focus E-Signatures E-Seals Mobile Apps Connector Apps PKI Integrations SharePoint Salesforce Word Hot Topics Remote Signing eIDAS Compliance Bulk Signing Local Signing Long-Term Validation XML Signing Industries Learn More Security Legality Interoperability. Features Why SigningHub Features Comparison Why We Are Different? Electronic Signing Benefits Who Can benefit? E-Sign Documents How It Works Quick Tour How to videos What Are Electronic Signatures? What Are Digital Signatures? Learn More Basic Signatures Advanced Signatures Qualified Signatures eBooks Questions to Ask Suppliers. Marketplace. Developer. Support SaaS Service Status FAQs Terms of Service ISMS Policy Quality Policy Privacy Policy System Requirements Trusted CA List Trusting a private PKI Knowledge Base Brand Guidelines Live Chat Live Chat. Pricing. Company About Us Blog Partners Customers Contact Us. Login. Free Trial. Products & Solutions Our Core Focus E-Signatures E-Seals Mobile Apps Connector Apps PKI Integrations SharePoint Salesforce Word Hot Topics Remote Signing eIDAS Compliance Bulk Signing Local Signing Long-Term Validation XML Signing Industries Learn More Security Legality Interoperability. Features Why SigningHub Features Comparison Why We Are Different? Electronic Signing Benefits Who Can benefit? E-Sign Documents How It Works Quick Tour How to videos What Are Electronic Signatures? What Are Digital Signatures? Learn More Basic Signatures Advanced Signatures Qualified Signatures eBooks Questions to Ask Suppliers. Marketplace. Developer. Support SaaS Service Status FAQs Terms of Service ISMS Policy Quality Policy Privacy Policy System Requirements Trusted CA List Trusting a private PKI Knowledge Base Brand Guidelines Live Chat Live Chat. Pricing. Company About Us Blog Partners Customers Contact Us. Login. Free Trial. Login Free Trial. Understanding the different levels and types. Contact Us. What are Electronic Signatures? Anyone new to this area can be easily confused about what constitutes an electronic signature and how different types of e-signatures compare in terms of evidential power and legality. At a basic level any mark on an electronic document can be used to capture the signer’s intent to approve or accept the contents of that document. The form of the “mark” or how it was created is not important. What is important is proving who made the mark and that the document was not changed subsequently. Electronic signatures are categorised as. Click-to-Sign Signatures Basic Electronic Signatures. Advanced Electronic Signatures Qualified Signatures. These signature types and the level of security they provide are explained in more detail below. Download our free Guide to choosing the right type of e-signature. Electronic signatures are categorized as. Click-to-Sign Signatures. Basic Electronic Signatures. Advanced Electronic Signatures. Qualified Signatures. These signature types and the level of security they provide are explained in more detail below. Download our free Guide to choosing the right type of e-signature. Click-to-Sign Signatures. These include tick boxes, e-squiggles, scanned images, and typed names. In this category of signature there is no cryptographic protection of the document.  So such signatures are not enough to provide strong evidence of who signed or even to protect the document from subsequent change. They can be easily cut/pasted from one document to another. We do not recommend the use of such signatures on their own. Basic Electronic Signatures. These involve the signer applying their hand-signature mark on the document and then this being protected with a cryptographic digital signature. With basic e-signatures, the crypto digital signature is created using a server-held signing key, e.g. belonging to the service provider organisation, hence we refer to this as a “witness” digital signature. In SigningHub this witness digital signature is applied every time an e-signature mark is applied by the user and cryptographically binds this mark to the document and protects the document from any subsequent changes, thereby ensuring data integrity. This is a long-term signature that includes a trusted timestamp. Normally basic e-signatures may or may-not require the user to be registered and their identity validated as a part of this. Regardless of whether or not users are registered with basic e-signatures the signer’s identity is not verifiable directly from the signed document. Learn more. Advanced and Qualified eSignatures. Advanced Electronic Signatures (AES) and Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) are fully supported in SigningHub. AES and QES provide the highest level of trust and assurance because these use unique signing keys for every signer. This directly links the user’s identity to the signed document such that anyone can verify it on their own using an industry standard PDF reader. Note technically these are also referred to as “digital signatures” rather than “e-signatures”. Furthermore, as the signer has sole control of their unique private signing key this ensures non-repudiation, i.e. even the service provider cannot be held responsible for creating the signature. SigningHub complies with eIDAS regulations for AES and QES using locally held credentials, such as a National eID card, or importantly remote signing where the user’s key is held securely, server-side. Remote signing has many benefits including the ability to sign from any machine without use of specialist devices like smartcards, hardware tokens and readers. The advantage of using AES/QES is that they show exactly who signed the document. QES are a more trusted version of AES because they require the highest levels of security for the protection of the user’s signing key and also a formal registration process for the user to verify their identity by a qualified Certificate Authority. From a legal perspective QES can be considered even stronger than handwritten signatures as the burden of proof shifts to the signer to prove that they did not sign! Learn More. Advanced Electronic Signatures. Qualified Electronic Signatures. Advanced Electronic Signatures. Qualified Electronic Signatures. Get Started Now. SigningHub provides a quick, easy digital Signature platform for sending, viewing,Signing and returning your e-documents. Start Free Trial. Comparing different types of Electronic Signatures. “Click to Sign” Basic e-Signatures. Advanced eSignatures. Qualified eSignatures. User Authentication. User Consent. User’s Signature Mark. Document Integrity. Bind Signer’s ID to Doc. Certify Signature. Embedded Evidence. Long Term Verifiability. Contact Us. Live Demos. Contact Us. Live Demos. Audit Information. In addition to the evidence provided by the e-signature itself, SigningHub also provides additional evidence in the form of detailed audit information on all user actions that affect a document. This is available on screen and also as a digitally signed Workflow Evidence Report (PDF), which is made available to provide clear evidence of actions, at precise dates/times, IP addresses, authentication mechanisms, legal notices and signatures applied. The transition to SigningHub’s e-signature solution has been very smooth. It’s really improved our signing process and made it much more efficient. It was standard for contracts to take a few days to come back but now it takes just a few hours. Helen Wheeler Traffic Coordinator at Somo. The transition to SigningHub’s e-signature solution has been very smooth. It’s really improved our signing process and made it much more efficient. It was standard for contracts to take a few days to come back but now it takes just a few hours. Helen Wheeler Traffic Coordinator at Somo. Download eBook – Choose the right type of eSignatures for your business. Download. Let’s Get Started. Quick Tour. Start Free Trial. Pricing. Features Comparison. Contact Us. Products. E-Signatures. E-Seals. Mobile Apps. Connectors. PKI. System Requirements. Hot Topics. eIDAS Compliance. Remote Signing. Local Signing. Bulk Signing. XML Signing. Long-Term Validation. Learn More. Blog. What are Electronic Signatures? What are Digital Signatures? Security. Legality. Interoperability. API. SigningHub is a product and cloud service provided by Ascertia – to find out more go to About Us or Ascertia.com. Terms of Service. Privacy Policy. © Ascertia. All Rights Reserved. Ascertia is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company. Ascertia, SigningHub, ADSS Server and corresponding logos are the trademarks of Ascertia. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners.