Transient Digital Identity and Signing
Adding a digital signature to a document or online form has traditionally been dependent on the user owning a digital certificate. This is because digital certificates are seen as a more secure method of identifying a person. However digital certificates are not always appropriate for use by consumers and other non-technical users, or users not able to be managed by an organisation’s IT department. To remedy this barrier to the uptake of digital signing, Avoco Secure have developed a technology that can automatically create a transient digital certificate, usable for a single session, from almost any identifying information. Examples of identifying information that can be used to generate the certificate include ATM/credit/bank cards, logon credentials (e.g. SAML tokens), Windows CardSpace claims, passport numbers, social security numbers, employee details, etc. Once these details are entered by the end user the certificate is created and used to sign the online form.
Using this technology, online signing portals can be made much easier for a more general audience.
Examples of the use of this technology include:
- Insurance portals where clients can complete and sign forms online using their claim number or customer reference or logon credentials
- Mortgage applications portals, mortgage could be completed and signed using, for example the credit card details of the applicant with a check on the credit card status made at the time of signing in the same manner that a financial transaction using a credit card would be made
- E-government portals, users can logon to the portal and sign various forms (e.g. building consent form) using their portal logon credentials
