Re: (Electronic) Signatures

Subject: Re: (Electronic) Signatures
From: Sandy Harris <sharris -at- DKL -dot- COM>
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 11:46:06 -0400

R2 Innovations wrote:

> If you are looking at utilizing electronic signature for approval, ...

> While many governments are looking at enacting laws to make
> electronic signatures legal, and many organizations already accept
> them as valid, they have not been upheld by a test case in a court
> of law, at least in Canada or the US -- correct me if I'm wrong.

I think you're correct about the lack of test cases, but you understate
the extent to which gov'ts are moving to change things. They are not
just "looking at" this; they're doing it.e.g. see the Canadian gov't.
page:

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/virtual_hosts/e-com/english/641.html

There's an international surevey on digital signature law at:

http://cwis.kub.nl/~frw/people/hof/DS-lawsu.htm

> Given this information, would you bet the financial well-being of your
> organzation, ... I wouldn't and don't.
>
> I still require a hard copy signature for ...

No doubt you're correct. If the concerns are surviving audits or making
sure agreements are legally enforcable, then do what the auditors and
lawyers tell you to. Get a physical signature on anything they say you
need it on. If in doubt, get the physical signature.

On the other hand, if the concerns are things like making sure people
cannot alter the electronic copy of a document and attribute the changed
version to you, or allowing people to verfiy that email came from you,
then do what the computer security & crypto folk say. Use electronic
signatures on everything that matters.

Your organisation may need a PKI (public key infrastructure) to manage
this. Major players include Network Associates http://www.nai.com who
now own PGP, and Entrust http://www.entrust.com, a Nortel spinoff who
provide the Canadian gov't. PKI.

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