The term “Digital Signature” is often confused and commonly been described as an e-signature that resembles a hand-drawing signature but applied in digital documents. Indeed, digital signatures provide a highly secure way to implement electronic signatures and play a crucial role in maintaining information security. They provide a way to validate the authenticity, validity and integrity of digital documents. Digital signatures are used in a wide range of applications, including email, contracts, official documents, codes and financial transactions. This blog post will look at many forms of digital signatures and their use cases.

Cryptographic digital signature is a type of digital signature that uses cryptography to authenticate the validity and integrity of a digital document. They are based on asymmetric encryption algorithms, which use private and public keys. The document is signed using the private key and is verified with the public key. Cryptographic digital signatures offer high levels of security and are widely accepted. However, Cryptographic digital signatures do not have an inherent mechanism for identity verification that the Certificate-based digital signatures offer. They are often used in a variety of applications such as email encryption, code signing, legal document, etc.

Certificate-based digital signature is a type of digital signature that uses a digital certificate to verify the identity of the signer. The digital certificate is issued by a trusted third party, known as a certificate authority (CA). These certificates contain information about the signer’s identity and are used to verify the authenticity of the digital signature. Certificate-based digital signatures offer an added level of trust and have a strict Know Your Customer (KYC) process enforced by a certificate authority (CAs) adhering to regulatory compliance before the issuing of a certificate. They are often used in industries where regulatory compliance and legal requirements are crucial, such as in signing legal documents and contracts.

QR code signature is a type of digital signature that uses a QR code to represent the signature. A unique QR code embedded with a digital signature is generated for each document, containing the necessary information to verify the document. Users scan the QR code using a QR scanner or compatible application to verify the authenticity and integrity of the signature. QR code signatures are used in a variety of applications such as documents, certificates, product authentication statements, and logistics.

Biometric digital signature is a type of digital signature that uses unique physical or behavioural characteristics of an individual such as a fingerprint, facial scan or even handwritten signature to verify the identity of the signer. Biometric signatures offer a high level of security as they are difficult to forge. They are often used in applications where identity verification is critical, such as banking and government documents.

Digital signatures have transformed how we authenticate and safeguard digital information by ensuring trust, integrity, and non-repudiation. The type of digital signature to use is determined by factors such as the required level of security, the nature of the document or transaction, and regulatory compliance. As technology continues to advance, digital signatures will evolve further and play an increasingly vital role in ensuring the integrity, authenticity, and non-repudiation of digital information.

Here at Netrust, we offer a wide range of digital signature solutions to address the needs of business and also day-to-day operations:

• nSignBasic: Document signing certificates (sometimes known as digital certificates or digital IDs) issued by Netrust allow you to add a digital signature to a document to prove the identity of the sender.
• nSignCore: Enable your business applications to perform digital signing via simple-to-integrate REST APIs
• nSignHub: A full-fledged electronic workflow solution used to send, sign, track and manage signing processes
• nSignQR: Protect the integrity of your physical documents offline with specially generated QR codes
• nSignSG: A web-based platform that lets you create digital signatures on PDF documents using Singpass

Reach out to us at https://www.netrust.net/contact-us/ or drop us an email at sales@netrust.net today to discuss your organisation’s signing requirements.

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