Pros and Cons of Digital Signature

A digital signature is an electronic signature used to authenticate identity of a message sender or document signer and make sure that content of the document or message is unchanged. Digital signatures are difficult to imitate, easily transportable and automatically time-stamped. Digital signatures can be used with all kinds of messages, whether encrypted or not, so as to make sure that the message arrived intact and to be aware of the sender’s identity.

Digital signatures are obtained from ‘certificate authority’ site and there are a few identity checks required before one can receive a digital signature. There are lots of benefits attached with digital signatures which make complicated business procedures to be carried out with ease. However, there are also some disadvantages of digital signatures.

The Pros of Digital Signature:

• Digital signatures speed up business procedures – Without the need to wait for documents to arrive by courier, contracts can be easily completed and delivered with the help of digital signatures within a matter of seconds.
• Compared to other procedures it is less costly – Sending documents with the help of courier or mail service leads to additional cost. But digital signature ensures that documents can be delivered over the web without the need to invest on courier or mail service.
• Digital signatures are secure – The documents remain safe and secured with digital signatures making sure that they are safe irrespective of the fact where it goes.
• Digital signatures saves time – Since physical delivery of document is not required, a lot of time can be saved which improves business efficiency.
• Digital signatures are authentic – If the digital signatures are carried out properly, they can stand up in court, similar to other documents or contracts signed in the real world.
• Digital signature documents can be tracked easily – The digitally signed documents are easy to track and locate. This leads to increase in productivity as each process is streamlined in an efficient manner.
• Imposter prevention – The possibility of committing fraud is eliminated by digitally signing the document. Forging the signature is made impossible with digital signature.

The Cons of Digital Signature:

• Expiry Date: Digital signatures are based on technology and the laws surrounding it depend on the state laws. The certificates of the digital signatures expire and it is the duty of the receiver to make sure that public key is valid.
• Need to buy certificates and verification software: Businesses using the digital signature might have to spend more money as digital signature involves buying of certificates from concerned authorities as well as the verification software.
• Need to educate the users: Within a business organization there might be many employees who are totally unaware of how a digital signature works. Additional times as well as money need to be spend on training the employees about how the process works that takes them away from their jobs.
• Compatibility issues: There are quite a lot of digital signature standard available which are incompatible with each other and there is an urgent need to come up with a standard procedure through which they can interact.

Author writes for signsquid.com, which offers electronic signature solution and document signing online. You can view more helpful articles on their website too.