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.