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1. Document E-signature Introduction

At present, all kinds of PDF documents were basically not digitally signed. These documents with no digital signatures are untrustworthy documents, because anyone can easily publish such documents by impersonating as an organization, or even anyone can counterfeit and tamper with the documents published by the government. Therefore, the electronic documents do not have trusted identity is not only an issue of compliance, but also a security risk. These electronic documents are easy to deceive people, make them lose money and even endanger their life. Therefore, the publisher of the document should pay high attention on this issue.

Adobe officially released PDF format files in 1992 to vigorously promote the electronization of documents. In 1999, Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader began to support digital signature technologies, intended to promote the credibility of electronic documents. According to the introduction on Adobe website, Electronic Signature (or E-signature) is a broad term referring to any electronic process that indicates acceptance of an agreement or a record. Typical e-signature solutions use common electronic authentication methods to verify signer identity, such as an email address, a corporate ID, or a phone PIN. If increased security is needed, multifactor authentication may be used. The best e-signature solutions demonstrate proof of signing using a secure process that includes an audit trail along with the final document.

But, if the user sets to use the graphic of the handwritten signature, electronic signature has a problem that it is impossible to verify whether the graphic of the handwritten signature is indeed the signature of the signer. The signing parties of the contract only either trust the signature graphic or verify the authenticity of the signature graphic by other means. This is the deficiency of the electronic signature.

Digital Signature (or D-signature) is one specific type of electronic signature, which is an improved and more reliable electronic signature. Digital signature use certificate-based digital IDs to authenticate signer identity and demonstrate proof of signing by binding each signature to the document with encryption, there is no need to include an audit trail along with the final document. The signer’s identity validation occurs through trusted certificate authorities (CAs) or trust service providers (TSPs).

We believe that since electronic signature only needs to validate the signer’s email address, it is not suitable for document signing. Therefore, MeSign Document D-signature Service only supports digital signature. It is necessary to validate the authentic identity of the document signer and configure an Adobe trusted PDF signing certificate for each signer automatically, the trusted certificate is used to digitally sign the PDF documents.

2. How to use Document D-signature Service

MeSign App is not only a free email client software, but also a document e-signing and encryption tool, it provides unlimited times of one-click document digital signature services and document encryption services for users that have purchased MeSign Document D-signature service, which meet user's demands on trusted paperless application.

Users do not need to spend time and money to apply the Adobe trusted PDF signing certificate from a CA, and they do not have to worry about how to manage the certificate and how to use the signing certificate in the Adobe Reader. As long as they use Document Signing function, the documents can be digitally signed by Adobe global trusted PDF signing certificate automatically with Adobe LTV (Long Term Validation) feature and attached Adobe trusted timestamps signature automatically.

MeSign Document D-signature Services enable each document has a trusted identity, which makes users easy to identify whether the identity of the document is fake or not at a glance, so that it can completely solve the problem of the document fraud and protect the user's personal property and personal safety. For the publication of government documents, displaying the authentic identity information of the publishing organization is helpful to prevent counterfeiting and the tampering of official documents; for the release of business documents, displaying the authentic identity information of the document publisher can effectively enhance the document trust and promote more business cooperation.

MeSign Document D-signature Services provide document single-signer signing and document multi-signer cosigning services. Users only need to select the "Document Signing" in the menu and select the local PDF file to be signed to complete the digital signing by one-click. Before agreeing to sign the document, users can choose the different methods of document encryption: Unencrypted; Encrypted (Readable for myself only); Encrypted (Readable for specified persons). This function can effectively prevent confidential document to be leaked, but it does not affect the person who has the right to read this document to decrypt it unintentionally.

Unintentional decryption means that the authorized reader can directly open and read the encrypted document by using the Adobe Reader smoothly, and the user is not aware that the document is encrypted, because the Adobe Reader can automatically decrypt the document with the encryption certificate automatically. However, for the readers who do not have the right to read this document will be notified from Adobe Reader that "This document is encrypted by a digital certificate, but there is no digital certificate for decrypting this document." MeSign uses the same encryption technologies on document encryption and email encryption by using public key for encryption and private key for decryption.

When encrypting a document, users can also choose whether to add a watermark using the email address of the person who has the right to read this document as anti-screenshot and anti-photograph protection, which can effectively track the path of leakage of confidential information in the encrypted document and reduce the risk of leakage of confidential information. This protection measure is more guaranteed than the traditional management of paper confidential documents, and effectively solves the risk of leakage of paper confidential documents being copied and photographed.

The system will lock the document after signing by default, so that re-signing on that document is not allowed. It is optional for users to allow re-signing after the signing, and if so, please remember to unselect this option. This function can be used in situations that require multiple signatures, such as, manually signing a contract or agreement, the user firstly signs by the MeSign App, and sends it to other signers, and the other signers use the Adobe Reader to sign it. Or sometimes it is necessary to sign the organization's e-seal first, and then attach a personal e-signature . These application scenarios require that the document is not locked after the first signing, but only locked the document after the last signing. Please note, the first signing will use the certifying signature method, and the signer’s identity information will be displayed on the top of the document. As shown below:

The Document Cosigning can be used in the application scenario that multiple organizations jointly issue the documents. The cosigning initiator initiates the cosigning and selects the cosigning parties to use the MeSign App to complete the digital signing in turn. The cosigning is used the same signing process as contract e-signing process by encrypted email. After the cosigning is completed, the identity information of the cosigning initiator is displayed on the top of Adobe Reader, and you can click the electronic signature of the document to view the identity information of all the signers.

Please click to download various types of signed documents sample files:
Single Signing (Organization) Cosigning (Two Organizations) Single Signing with Encryption Signed document has been tampered with (Organization) two signing tools signed (one use MeSign App, another use Adobe Reader)