Ensuring Security When Signing Documents Online
Ensuring Security When Signing Documents Online
When running a sleek online operation in the digital universe, one of the components that businesses, large and small, should never overlook is document security. This is especially important when dealing with sensitive matters such as legal documents, agreements, contracts, and the like, where the need to sign documents online comes to the fore.
Ensuring the security of these transactions isn't just about complacency, it’s about diligently protecting your assets, your business, and your reputation from cybercriminals. It’s about instilling confidence in all constituents who use or will use your platform to conduct business with you. This article aims to elucidate just how to ensure security while signing documents online.
Understanding the Risks
Before diving into the bulk of the matter, it’s essential to understand the potential risks involved in online document signing. Data breaches, identity theft, unauthorized access, and phishing scams are just some of the potential threats. Therefore, implementing robust measures to safeguard online document signing is both crucial and beneficial.
Use Secure Platforms
The first step towards ensuring security when signing documents online is by choosing a secure and reputable electronic signature platform. It should be equipped with multiple layers of security protocols such as secure sockets layers (SSL), encryption, secure storage, and secure transmission of data.
The platform should also comply with major international, national, and industry-specific security standards, like ISO 27001 for information security management and the US government standard, FedRAMP.
Protect Your Documents
Using a secure platform doesn’t necessarily mean your documents are fully protected. You need to enforce document protection to keep them safe from unauthorized access and manipulation.
To add an extra layer of protection, consider employing a tool that offers PDF/document protection such as digital rights management (DRM) or password protection. There are numerous platforms out there to help you with this, including HelpRange, which apart from offering robust PDF protection, also provides users with detailed PDF usage analytics.
Adhere to Legal Standards
It's important to ensure that the electronic signature platform you choose complies with your region's legal standards. In the US, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN Act) are a benchmark.
These legal standards ascertain the legality of electronic signatures and maintain the rule that a contract or signature "may not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because it’s in electronic form."
Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an additional layer of security to the online document signing process. By requiring a second form of identification before access is granted, 2FA ensures that even if a hacker manages to acquire your password, they cannot access your documents without the second factor.
Monitor Suspicious Activity
Vigilance is key in maintaining the security of your online document signature platform. Monitoring for suspicious activity can go a long way in preempting potential attacks. A sudden surge in logins, multiple failed login attempts from the same IP address, or an unusual time of login could all indicate attempted unauthorized access. Having measures that can detect and alert you of such activities can be beneficial.
Secure Backup And Recovery
Last but not least, consider a secure backup and recovery system as part of your security plan. While this may seem like an afterthought, it can prove invaluable in the event of data loss or a breach. Regularly backing up your documents ensures they can be retrieved should anything happen to the original versions.
Securing digital transactions, especially those involving signatures, is essential to the survival and success of any online operation. The steps elucidated above offer a solid starting point to ensuring the security and integrity of online transactions, ultimately fostering trust and confidence in your brand.
Check out HelpRange
HelpRange is "Next-Gen Documents Protection & Analytics Platform". HelpRange represents the cutting-edge platform for document access controls and in-depth analytics, ensuring superior management and usage insights for your documents.