There may be certain instances when you will need multiple people to sign and approve documents. In this type of situation you can use more than one digital signature on the same document. For example, a purchase requisition can require signatures from the person issuing the purchase requisition as well as signatures from people who have to approve the requisition.

How to Apply More Than One Digital Signature to a Document

An electronic signature on its own is not a secure signature. Anyone can modify, change, delete or forge the signature. There is also no way to authenticate the signature as being authentic. However, you can make this type of signature secure by converting it into a digital signature. A digital signature will require creating different digital certificates.

Issue Digital Certificates after Converting an Electronic Signature

A digital signature is a type of electronic signature that is encrypted. It is important to understand the differences between using a digital signature and a basic electronic signature. Your basic electronic signature does not use any form of encryption. A good example of an electronic signature is the signature you use in your email messages. Anyone can change, modify or delete this type of electronic signature. For example, anyone could copy your email message into a new message and re-sign the message using their electronic signature.

There are different purposes for which you can use a digital certificate. You can use this type of certificate when you want to digitally sign documents and files and make sure they are secure. Without the proper certificate the signed documents and files cannot be accessed. Digital signatures are often used for financial documents, proprietary data files and other types of information that need to be kept confidential.

A Digital Certificate Can Be Used as a Second Form of Authentication

Creating and issuing digital certificates will require using a certificate authority system. This type of system is able to create any type of digital certificate that you may require for your organization. You can use it to create digital certificates containing digital signatures as well as creating both the public and private keys that are required. The private key is issued to the person who will be digitally signing documents. The public key is issued to anyone who will need to authenticate and access the digitally signed documents.

Single sign on authentication is where a person will enter a single user name and password and will not be required to enter it again for access to different resources and applications. The process for authentication is conducted in the background, as each application or resource is opened. It does have its advantages, as well as disadvantages, which are easy to counter.

Disadvantages to Single Sign on Authentication Can Be Countered

When you use a certification authority system to generate your own digital certificates, it will use the X509 standards to create the certificates. These standards include some basic information about the digital certificate, such as who issued the certificate, the certificate version number, and how long the certificate is valid. There are also other structures included as part of these standards which are required.

X509 Standards Helped Resolve Digital Certificate Compatibility Issues

There are all different types of terminology used when you deal with security in the digital world. You will hear the terms digital certificate, X509 certificate, digital signature, public key, private key, public key cryptography, and more. Even for a tech savvy person, it can get confusing knowing what each individual term means and how it provides security features. Most of these items are different parts of digital certificates, while other items have to do with the process to create digital certificates.

Is an X509 Certificate Special Code for Something?

Public Key Infrastructure, or PKI, for short is the standard used for digital signatures today. This standard incorporates the usage of a private key and a public key. Without these two keys, the digital signature cannot be authenticated as being original. The private key is stored on the computer of the person, who signed the electronic document. They will need to issue a digital certificate with a public key and provide this certificate to anyone, who will need to authenticate their electronic documents.

PKI Helps Authenticate a Digital Signature

You will find that people like to abbreviate terminology in all different types of industries and fields. The reason people shorten down long terms is to make it easier to communicate and share thoughts and ideas. When you have to spell out the long form name of a product, idea or procedure, it can take longer than just using a shortened, abbreviated notation everyone in the industry understands. For example, in technology security, Two Factor Authentication is often shortened down to 2FA.

Cloud Computing Environments Are Ideal for Using 2FA