Background of the Study

Most of the times the question of what a digital signature is, is asked by – not
exactly smart but not even technically challenged people. So first of all let us
understand what a digital signature is. For an easier understanding think of a digital
signature as serving a purpose similar to that of an on paper signature. A signature is
used to authenticate a person as it is very unlikely that anyone would be able to copy
the signature of an individual. Similarly digital signature uses mathematical functions
which give a unique signature to the sender at the same time encrypting the message if
required to make sure that the message or the documents being sent via email or
through any digital medium are sent by the person they are claimed to be sent by. And
even these documents or messages are not tampered with or edited and reach in the
same condition they are sent.

Practically the only disadvantages of using digital signature are the weak laws
regarding cyber security which might cause any unnecessary hassles in case of a court
case and that both parties have to purchase the certificates for the digital signature in
order to use it instead of the one party courier charge (Anant Patel.2015).
A major disadvantage of signature-based detection is the time required to
process the incoming information against the signature database leaves the system
vulnerable to denial-of-service (DoS is any type of attack where the attackers (hackers)
attempt to prevent legitimate users from accessing the service.) attacks. Another
disadvantage, as mentioned above, the signature database can require a large amount
of data storage. Lastly, signature-based detection is vulnerable to 0-day exploits, as a
signature must be created for every attack (Disadvantages of signature-based
detection).

As of 2010, businesses rely increasingly on technology to produce goods and

services and fulfill business tasks. To accommodate these changes, businesses
sometimes use electronic signatures, also known as e-signatures or digital
signatures. These signatures take the place of traditional ink-on-paper signatures.
There are pros and cons associated with using an electronic signature, all of which a
businessperson should know before implementing an electronic signature system or
policy (Wanda Thibodeaux. 2017)
According to Johnson Gragson (2016), the biggest problem I have with “digital
signatures” is good old-fashioned authentication. When a piece of paper is presented to
the court, it must be demonstrated to be authentic in order to be admissible. As applied,
a paper purporting to bear a signature will need to be shown to have
been actually signed by the party in question and not someone else. When you sign
something before a notary, it’s “self-authenticating” because the notary is a public
official who is duty-bound to ensure that you are who you say you are when you sign
something.
 According to Courtney Webber (2016), E-signatures tend to get a bad rep because
people think that typing your name at the bottom of a word document counts as an e-
signature. When in reality - this is not an e-signature and this will likely not hold up in court.
E-signatures hold up in court because the document will often have such things as: An audit
trail which tracks every movement of the document and includes the time and date any
changes have been made, Include verified signer ID, Are compliant with the Electronic
Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN ACT) as well as the Uniform Electronic
Transactions Act (UETA).

RESOURCES:

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-legal-problems-with-digital-signature#

https://bizfluent.com/about-6588716-role-information-technology-business-
transformation.html

http://digitalindiainsight.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-digital-signature/