In an era that is increasingly vulnerable in the digital realm, being sure that your company's data and information is safe is fundamental and fully possible with the help of a signature with digital certificate.
We often use the internet to view and share highly confidential and important information for our business, such as bank records, financial reports, contracts that contain sensitive customer data, among others.
Although it is already a common practice and relatively easy to be replicated, How can we ensure that shared data is being accessed only by the proper party and not by a person or program or malicious code that is a risk to the integrity of that information?
In this article, you will understand the concept and relevance of certifying a digital signature and, even better, learn how to create it using both Adobe Reader and Microsoft Word. Come on?
What is a digital signature?
Before we create a subscription with digital certificate, it is necessary to understand its concept. In short, the term refers to encryption technology that provides protection and integrity for documentation in the digital realm.
Since 2001, as set out in the Public Key Infrastructure in Brazil (ICP Brazil), digital documents have legal effect throughout the Brazilian territory and, if authenticated, can replace handwritten signatures.
This not only reduces the time dedicated to a transaction, such as the signing of a service agreement between two companies that will no longer require travel to the registry offices, for example, but also ensures that a message or digital document is intact and not has been modified – by accident or not – from the moment it was signed.
In addition, digital signatures increase transparency and trust between parties, but also bring efficiency to any department – and any industry, such as keeping your sales team focused on selling, freeing them from tasks manual and repetitive administrative
What is a digital certificate?
You can think of a certificate in digital such as a driver's license or other official documents that are used for your private identification. This credential links the certificate owner's identity to a pair of electronic encryption keys (one public and one private), which can be used to encrypt and sign digital information.
The main purpose of the digital certificate is to ensure that the public key contained in the certificate belongs to the entity to which the certificate was issued, that is, to verify that the person sending a message is who he claims to be, and then also provide the receiver of the message the means to encode a response back to the sender.
It's as if your document is protected with a tamper-proof seal. A digital certificate signature means that each signer has received a digital ID from a trusted service provider, such as a certificate authority (CA).
From there, the signer's identity is revalidated as the document is signed, while the signature is cryptographically linked to the document using public key infrastructure (PKI) technology.
This makes digital signatures, such as cloud signatures, ideal for high-risk transactions, or simply to comply with the General Data Protection Act (LGPD), after all, a digital certificate signature provides the highest level of assurance of a signer's identity.
Advantages of signing with a digital certificate
When the signer uses a certificate to digitally sign a document, other people (known as relying parties) can trust the digital signature because they believe the CA has done its part to ensure that the signer matches their digital identity.
In this sense, the signer's private key is encrypted in the document, adding the timestamp and graphic image of the signature that help in the process of recognition of the signature. validity of the signature. To validate it, just use any reader PDF which will decrypt the signature with the signer's public key.
whereas each digital signature is unique to the signer and document, it is not possible to copy and paste the identification. This means that signing with a digital certificate makes digital agreements really secure.
It is worth noting that a digital certificate contains the information necessary to identify and contact the issuing authority, in case of doubts about the veracity or validity of that identification, although it is designed to be resistant to tampering and difficult to falsify.
The digital signature can be used to authenticate the origin of messages, which is essential especially in financial contexts. Another advantage is that if a message is digitally signed, any change after that invalidates the signature. This safeguards the message integrity parts. Furthermore, an entity that has signed some information cannot later deny that it has signed it (non-repudiation).
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How to make a digital certificate signature in Adobe Reader
As we saw earlier, a digital certificate is an electronic identity that proves the authenticity of a device, server, or user through the use of cryptography and public key infrastructure (PKI).
Certificate authentication in digital helps organizations ensure that only trusted devices and users can connect to their networks, particularly as it contains identifiable information such as the name of a user, company or department and the Internet Protocol (IP) address or serial number of a device.
Want to know how to create a digital certificate signature in Adobe Reader when you are already certified? Check out:
1) Firstly, you must open the document that will be signed in Adobe Reader DC;
2) After reading the file and confirming the information, it's time to sign it. To do this, select the option “Tools” that appears on the top tab of Adobe Reader (next to the tab where the open document is being displayed);
3) Next, you will need to find and click to open the “Certificates";
4) Afterwards, you will find under the “Tools” tab the option “digitally sign”, which is also listed in the top bar of Adobe Reader;
5) The next step is to select the space where your signature with digital certificate will be displayed. It is recommended to use the lower space, after the text contained in the document;
6) Next, Adobe Reader will open a window so you can select the certificate you want to use. Select and click “Continue";
7) Finally, click on “Sign“, enter your password, click “Save” and that’s it, your document has been digitally signed.
How to Sign a Digital Certificate in Microsoft Word
In addition to being able to create a digital certificate signature on PDFs, your company also benefits from a digital certificate signature on Microsoft Word. See the step by step:
- First of all, it is very important to read and reread the document that will be signed. Then click on “File";
- Then select the option “Protect document";
- The third step will be to click on “Add a digital signature";
- When you make this selection, Word will open a window in which you will need to fill in some information, such as the “commitment type“. Read carefully and choose the most appropriate option for the document in question;
- The "Subscription Purpose” should also be selected;
- After proceeding, you will need to select the digital certificate and, finally, click on sign, enter your password, click on save and that's it.
Understand the difference between digital and electronic signatures
Now it's easy, isn't it? However, if you got here thinking that digital signature and electronic signature are the same thing, let's explain now the difference among these techniques that will modernize your business and make it more dynamic.
As much as both subscriptions help with the convenience, speed of subscriptions and savings in time and money, a electronic signature can be set to an image of the signature that you can add to any document. Unlike digital signature with certificate, a electronic signature it can be copied, pasted and attached to other documents by anyone.
As such, there is not that same process of verifying documents, or any tracking for changes made to the content of documents after signing, whereas digital signature, a type of electronic signature, is based on cryptographic technology and therefore is more manageable.
Electronic signature solution
The adoption of electronic signatures of online documents in companies has been increasingly widespread, especially for its ability to be used for almost all private documents, be they contracts, powers of attorney, proposals, agreements, loans, among others.
To make it even more secure, ZapSign allows you to capture various subscriber authentication data such as your signers' name, phone number and email.
In addition, the integrity of the file is guaranteed by the SHA256 algorithm, which is a cryptographic hash function created by the NSA. Our algorithm can even identify whether the original file has been altered. Then contact a ZapSign expert now and learn how to combine the electronic signature with your business.
