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March 05, 2014

10ZiG at the RSA Conference 2014

The RSA show; this year 10ZiG Technology elected to showcase the Zignature Pad with patented “what you see is what you sign technology." This product offers one of the securest ways to provide esignature with enhanced security. We decided to showcase this product after interest from many sectors including banking, car leasing, cell phone providers, medical and law enforcement. It appears that there is a lot of interest to move to paperless document management. The benefits of going paperless are saving the printing cost, scanning and secure disposal or filing, not to mention the efficiency of having content available within the computer system within seconds of the document process being completed.  Something, which remains within the computer system, can also be controlled much easier. The Zignature Pad is capable of providing a printed copy of the completed form  if the customer requires it for their records, the exit program provided can perform this automatically. One of the aspects of the Zignature Pad which people seemed most interested in was the use of X509 certificates. This feature, which can be invoked by the use of the included designer software, enables the certificate to be read and embedded into the final document at the time of signing. The security features available on the Zignature are as follows:
  • X509 Certificate data can be read from USB or Smart card and embedded in the document
  • Date and Time of signing
  • Whole document present for viewing with recording of time spent per page
  • Finger print reader output can be added*
  • Camera output can be added*
  • Card reader output can be added*
  • BIOmetric signing data recorded and encrypted on the Pad
  • High resolution Pad, enabling the user to see his / her signature which feels like a paper signature
  • Width of the signature line varies with pressure
  • Signature Boxes can be drawn to focus the user on where they sign*
  • The document can be protected to allow only signature fields*
  • Mandatory signature fields can be added to ensure ALL areas are completed prior to document processing*
Auditable chain of custody is cases where multiple signatures are required by multiple parties. *Requires use of the included designer software. In its most basic form the Zignature Pad can be used like a paper document, we include windows software, which provides a printer driver. To use the Zignature Pad simply print the contract or form to be filed directly to the provided driver and it will appear on the pad, when finished a tamper evident PDF is produced on the pad itself.  To enhance the security, the included designer software can be used. This software enables the integration of third party products like finger print readers, card scanners, cameras and use of the USB and Smart card reader built in to the Zignature Pad.  The combination of the BIOmetric data, finger print, camera, X509 certificate should mean that the document produced using this device can give you the best chance of Non-repudiation.  The designer software can also be used to name the output file name based on document content, such as account number etc to make it seamless for your achieve software. The fact that the PDF is created on the Pad itself is important because at no time does the signers BIOmeteric data ever leave the device unencrypted. In some countries in the world the smaller signature pads, which pass this data to a PC for processing, have been shown to not hold up in court. The concept being that once the user loses control of where their signature is applied in ceases to be a legally binding signature. My local doctors office provides some laminated pages, which they show patients and a small pad for esigning the privacy policy etc. I asked the receptionist how people take to this approach; she told me the vast majority of people did not like to use this method, as they were unable to actually see what they were putting their name to. The Zignature Pad was designed with the user experience foremost, the entire document (up to fifty pages with the standard product) can be held on the Pad with arrows for page up and down. This not only enables the user to read and complete the full form knowing exactly what they are signing, it also means that it can easily be integrated into the workflow as all we require is the ability to print the document. One benefit of this approach means the source of the document does not matter, providing it can be printer via the windows print driver. Many times when companies’ look to move to a paperless solution it requires new software and hardware to achieve this. The result is often a go / no go situation with the whole process being changed. With the Zignature Pad the existing method can still be used to handle the exceptions that inevitably will arise. The Zignature Pad attaches to a PC or Thin Client using a USB or a Network cable. Software is available for use with the Samsung Tablet or Samsung Note 3 for portable use. The Tablet approach is great for mobile users. The content can be delivered using a variety of ways including, Citrix, forms can be stored on the tablet, web content using the supplied browser. The signed forms are transformed to digitally signed PDF’s with the BIOmetric data encrypted as with the Zignature Pad.  The onboard camera can be used to add additional data. Unlike the Zignature Pad this method does have an underlying OS (Android), therefore is has some potential exposure to malicious code. I feel however with some companies accepting signature data from a finger or using such low resolution pads that the signature looks like it was done with chalk, this limitation seems small. The software is available on Google Play and the Zignature Pad is available for risk free Demo.