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by DP Taylor | Updated Aug. 5, 2022 – First published on May 18, 2022
Image source: Getty Images
Few things are more expensive to a business than a data breach, and a few recent incidents drive that point home. One Canadian lender had to spend $53 million after exposing the personal information of 2.9 million members, and a Norwegian manufacturer may have to pay out as much as $75 million after a cyberattack.
Protecting your data is vital, which is why you can’t rely on outdated methods of storing and sharing documents — such as locking it in a file cabinet or sending it over email.
Digital signature certificates help many companies keep their documentation and data secure, ensuring sensitive information is not tampered with or viewed by unauthorized persons.
These certificates are about so much more than electronic document signing — they ensure the integrity of the information itself, which is vital when you’re dealing with sensitive company or personal information.
Understanding how to secure your documents with signatures is an essential element in good business document management. Here’s what you need to know about these certificates, and a practical guide for using them to secure your documents.
Digital certificates are credentials that verify that a person who is sending a message or document is indeed who they say they are — and not some imposter. A digital certificate connects an individual’s identity to a public and private encryption key, and these keys verify the identity of the certificate owner.
The person who receives the message or document is given a way to send an encrypted reply back to the sender. Digital certificates are key parts of digital signatures, which secure important documents and information.
Were it not for a digital certificate, someone could pretend to be someone else, which may violate the integrity of the document or message in question.
A digital certificate is just one part of a digital signature. A digital signature is the end result of a number of processes, including the certificate, working together to “seal” a document and assure the recipient that all the information is secure and hasn’t been compromised by an unauthorized user.
To do this, a digital signature creates an electronic “fingerprint” using a complex encryption process.
Here are a few key terms related to digital signatures from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that will help you understand how a certificate fits into the digital signature process:
Digital certificates have a variety of benefits over a standard “wet signature.” Chiefly, those benefits have to do with security, but they will also help you run your business better.
Digital certificates assure everyone involved in the process that the sender is who they say they are. This ensures that a bad actor can’t defraud others by pretending to be someone else.
It is paramount to prevent your data from being accessed by unauthorized users. If your data is compromised, you may have your identity stolen or lose sensitive business information to criminals. Certificates prevent unauthorized eyes from viewing your data.
Digital certificates are an easy way to protect your information without a lot of time commitment on your part. Electronic signature software programs can create them for you. As a result, you don’t have to take extensive steps to secure your information, such as meeting in person to exchange documents.
Thanks to these digital encryption processes, you’ll be able to see exactly who signed documents, how they were altered, who has access to them, and every other important piece of information about the data. You’ll have total control over your documentation, which is a must in today’s digital age.
Creating a digital certificate is not something you can do on your own, unless you are a programmer or software developer with a lot of expertise in encryption and online document signing. However, software platforms will do this work for you. Here are three easy ways to use software to create digital certificates.
Adobe Sign makes it easy to create a virtual signature for PDF documents:
For more detailed instructions on creating a certificate through Adobe, refer to the following tutorial video:
Sectigo is a CA that issues SSL and other types of digital certificates. Here is how to create a certificate through it:
For more detailed instructions on creating a certificate through Sectigo, refer to the following tutorial video:
Microsoft Office also allows users to create digital certificates, which can be used for verifying any documents created or edited through its software:
For more detailed instructions on creating a certificate through Microsoft Office, refer to the following tutorial video:
Shifting your document management to the digital sphere has so many benefits — beyond securing your documents, you will be better able to organize them, and your staff will more easily find and access the documents they need, when they need them.
If you don’t have an electronic filing system and are using physical documents, you must upgrade as soon as possible.
With a digital filing system in place, you’ll be able to sign a document online within seconds, upload it to your server, make it accessible to all who need to see it, and create an audit trail that will show all of the pertinent details about that document — such as who edited, who uploaded it, when it was altered, how it was changed, and much more.
DP Taylor is a business software expert writing for The Ascent and The Motley Fool.
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