Digital Document Signing

What is an Electronic Signature?

An electronic signature is a legally binding signature. The U.S. Federal ESIGN Act, passed in 2000, stated that an eSignature is an “electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.”

Electronic signatures are recognised across the world as legally binding, and used in countries across the world including Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the EU.

Secure Digital Document Signing

With the use of PKI, digital signatures offer a non-repudiation by generating a public and private key. The document signed will also be timestamped, invalidating any changes made to a document post-signing.

Cogito’s Offering

Cogito Group are experts in Public Key Infrastructure and non-repudiation solutions. We take the ‘trust’ conventions that work in real life, such as signatures and photo identification, and make them work online. We are able to offer a unique internally controlled solution to digital document signing within existing applications.

How to Digitally Sign Documents

There are several different ways to digitally sign a document. Software such as Adobe reader, Microsoft Office and OpenOffice each have the ability for users to digitally sign documents using a unique interface.

These interfaces can allow users to use their mouse, finger, stylus, or fill in their name and date of birth to provide a digital signature.

The document is then encrypted via two-way mutually-authenticating cryptographic keys.

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Microsoft Office

LibreOffice/OpenOffice

Frequently Asked Questions

What is PKI?

PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) is made up of enabling technology. This includes:

1. A Certificate Authority (CA) that issues and verifies digital certificates

2. A registration authority that acts as the verifier for the certificate authority before a digital certificate is issued to a requestor

3. One or more directories where the certificates or public keys are held

4. A Certificate Management System (CMS)

How do I Create a Digital Signature?

A digital signature is created via an interface designed by a an eSignature provider. Cogito Group is able to provide an internally controlled solution to allow document signing within existing applications.

What is a CA (Certificate Authority?)

A Certificate Authority acts to validate identities and ensure key pairs are correctly paired with digital certificates. This will also include a CSR (Certificate Signing Request). A CSR is an encoded text file. Cogito Group’s Digital Document Signing offering is built on the foundation of our ability to provide non-repudiation, authentication, integrity and confidentiality across the digital ecosystem.

What is a Digital Certificate?

A digital certificate establishes the identity of a user within an environment. The digital certificate maintains the chain of trust within a digital ecosystem