E-signature Security

Have you ever heard of pens that use a special kind of ink that penetrates paper so the ink cannot be removed? This sounds like a great thing to use to prevent check fraud and other signature fraud.

Although this is a great tool to prevent fraud, electronic signatures still provide more layers of protection to help you ensure who is really signing a document.

With the ink pen, someone can still forge a name on a contract. There are a number of scenarios and situations that have occured where people do this. So, why not eliminate someone ability to access the document to begin with?

This is a feature of e-signatures that many lawyers, accountants, and other professionals use most. Let’s say I wanted to get you to sign a document. Instead of mailing or faxing and allowing the document to go through “many hands,” I send you an email request to your password protected email account. With an e-signature service like ConXPoint, you will also need a PIN to access the document. That is two layers of security.

After you access and sign the document, the signature is stamped with your IP address, date and time you signed the document, and additional auditing information. Hand written signatures cannot capture information in the same way. Furthermore, the original document is stored by law in a secure location to prevent tampering.

I believe penetrating ink still has it’s place. It’s just that e-signatures are more secure than handwritten signatures, regardless of what kind of ink you use.

National Stay at Home Week

Have you heard about ABC’s National Stay at Home Week promotion?  What began as a clever attempt to promote the ABC Fall TV schedule actually is gaining traction with the environmental movement, with people struggling to fill their gas tanks, and companies looking to ease this burden by allowing workers to telecommute.

Working from home would indeed decrease our national fuel consumption. The problem is that many business owners worry how working from home may reduce accountability and worker efficiency. These are legitimate worries.

Access to files, projects, and communications are all concerns that have been addressed through online programs that enable you to connect to the office, collaborate on documents, and discuss topics face-to-face via video web conferencing.

This technology may sound like a thing of the future, but it is actually very accessible to businesses and workers through any internet connection. The ConXPoint Business Center, for example doesn’t need to be installed on your computer or managed by an IT professional. It is easily accessible via your internet browser.

If you decide to participate in the National Stay at Home Week, but worry how this will affect your work, you may want to consider trying out one of the remote file management and online collaboration services. Most have a free trial. Staying at home for an entire week will give you a good opportunity to try out a new way to work.