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FINAL PROJECT REPORT

Digital Signature Technologies

Institution Affiliation

By

_________

Assignment Due Date

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1.1 TABLE OF CONTENTS

0.1 TABLE OF CONTENTS..............................................................................................................2

0.2 ABSTRACT..........................................................................................................................................4

1.0 BACKGROUND INFORMATION.............................................................................................5

2.0 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................5

2.1 Problem Statement Analysis...........................................................................................................7

3.0 LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................................................................................7

Figure1................................................................................................................................................8

3.1 SDS Used in the Project................................................................................................................10

3.1.1 DocuSign..................................................................................................................................10

3.1.2 SignNow...................................................................................................................................10

3.1.3 PandaDoc.................................................................................................................................11

3.1.4 Adobe Sign...............................................................................................................................11

3.2 Previous Comparisons on Selected Studies.................................................................................12

4.0 METHODOLOGY............................................................................................................................14

Figure 2:............................................................................................................................................14

Figure 3.............................................................................................................................................15

4.1 Four different digital signature technologies:.............................................................................15

4.2 Comparison Criteria.....................................................................................................................15

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Table 1...............................................................................................................................................15

4.3 Effectiveness for business and personal use................................................................................18

5.0 RESULTS...........................................................................................................................................18

6.0 DISCUSSION.....................................................................................................................................19

Figure 4.............................................................................................................................................19

7.0 REFERENCES..................................................................................................................................20

8.0 APPENDIX.........................................................................................................................................26
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0.2 ABSTRACT

Digital signatures refer to an electronic representation of an actual signature used to

indicate the identity of the source of information being transmitted. It identifies who is the

sender of the document and who is the signer of the document (Cassidy et.al, 2016). Generally,

a digital signature ensures that the transmitted data gets to the intended destination without

distortion; it also ensures that the signature belongs to the critical certificate holder (Bryon,

2014). The rapid growth of the internet has made most enterprises shift online; hence it

increased the use and development of digital signature technologies.

Each digital signature technology comes with its share of pros and cons. It is suitable for

different use-cases. Therefore, different situations will be analyzed to determine the best digital

signature technology to develop the best situations where an individual or an organization can

use digital signature technologies. In this paper, we will compare different digital signature

technologies focusing mainly on their vulnerabilities and features. Also, this paper will highlight

different circumstances where these technologies are compatible.

This research will use secondary data, including online sources such as journal articles, books,

and other academic materials, to determine the various digital signature technologies that

companies can adapt. Through secondary research, a comparison will be undertaken for all the

possible digital signature technologies such as Acrobat, PandaDoc, SignNow, and DocuSign.

The study will also present the best scenarios for using digital signatures; hence, companies may

know what to use in the future.

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1.0 BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Nowadays, it is essential to encrypt documents to prevent unauthorized people from

intercepting and reading them. Signing the documents digitally is one of the most reliable and

secure methods of restricting unauthorized access records. The aim of the project is to compare

four digital signature technologies with each other by focusing mainly on its vulnerabilities and,

features. After getting the deeper research on it, different situations will analyze to determine the

best digital signature technology over other technologies where an individual or an organization

can use digital signature technologies. Also, this paper will highlight different circumstances

where these technologies are compatible. Thus, this project will detail the four digital signature

technologies that will equip users with the most informed decision when choosing the most

suitable signature solution for their personal use or business use.

2.0 INTRODUCTION

The current technological advancements across the world have led to an increasing trend

of exchanging documents over the internet as many organizations and businesses have shifted to

online operations. In most cases, people exchange sensitive and confidential information over

the internet, which may require verification and authentication by the intended online recipients.

Hence, data such as legal contracts and financial transactions approval documents may need to

be verified to avoid falling victims to cybercrimes (Sadiku, Musa & Temley, 2016). It is

essential to encrypt the documents to prevent unauthorized people from intercepting and reading

them. Therefore, encryption behind signing the documents digitally is one of the most reliable

and secures methods of restricting unauthorized access.

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The increasing demand for digital signature technology has led to increased software

companies delivering commercial security software that helps users secure their e-commerce

documents. Generally, a digitally signed e-commerce document provides evidence of its status,

identity, and origin. Other than businesses, digital signature technology is also used by

governments to secure sensitive documents on the internet (Cassidy, Vinlove, Green, Hogan &

Fabbri, 2016). Digital signature technologies facilitate various document processes such as

filing taxes, closing contracts, and distributing employee applications. Additionally, Microsoft

developed the Authenticode technology using digital signature technology. The Authenticode

technology is responsible for ensuring web-downloadable codes. A digital signature is unique to

each signer, just like the handwritten signatures, although a digital signature is more secure

(Weast, 2011). The digital signature provides a solution to the impersonation and tampering

problems in digital communications. In most countries, digitally signed documents are

considered legally binding, just as the traditional handwritten document signatures.

A digital signature can be used in various contexts to exchange documents by ensuring

their integrity and authenticity. Digital signatures use an accepted standard known as Public Key

Infrastructure (PKI). The PKI algorithm is used to generate a public and private key. To create

an effective digital signature, the encryption of the signature-related data is done using the

private key, and decryption can only be done using the signer's public key (Sancar & Cavus,

2021). The digital signatures require a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to identify the respective

document signers to ensure safety (Santos, 2020). It is essential for all parties involved in digital

signature technology to trust that the document signers can secretly keep the private key. If a

third party accesses the signer's private key, there is a possibility of creating fraudulent digital

signatures using the document signer's name.

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This project presents a detailed analysis of some currently available digital signature

technologies, particularly Adobe Sign, PandaDoc, SignNow, and DocuSign. Firstly, the problem

statement will be discussed to highlight the need of the project, which will be followed by a

literature review, research questions, and methodology, respectively. Also, the timeline of the

project and expected advantages will be explained at last.

2.1 Problem Statement Analysis

There are several problems which one should consider before choosing any digital signature
technology. Some of them are highlighted below:
 It is difficult for both individuals and organizations to choose the most suitable digital
signature technology for their use-cases in the current rapid technological advanced era.
This is because there are numerous digital signature technologies in the market, some of
which have pricing charts that conceal nasty surprises for the users with little technical
skills to help them know what to look for regarding pricing.
 There are several attacks that are faced by some digital signature technologies, but these
attacks and threats are not highlighted publicly for the sake of the reputation of software
companies. These companies try to hide this information from the user. However, to
secure personal and organizational data, it is necessary to find out deeply before
choosing any digital signature technology.

 With little technical knowledge, it is hard for users to choose one technology according
to their requirements. Thus, they choose any digital technology without considering the
factors such as security mechanism, the software behind their chosen digital signature
technology, and services that are outsourced by it.

After considering the above problems, this research paper outlines the various features, pros,
and cons of the four different digital signature technologies essential to users in different use-
cases.
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3.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

Digital signature stands to be more of a mathematical coding used to display the

authenticity of either the digital documents or messages by signing the documents electronically

(Zhang, 2010). Three main benefits are provided by digital signature technology, which are

authentication, data integrity, and nonrepudiation. Digital signatures involve several elements

such as public and private key pairs, hashing, and encryption. According to Santos (2020), digital

signatures use Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to secure documents. The digital signature

solutions help users in signing papers and authenticating the signer.

According to Jaju & Chowhan (2015) argue that the digital signature relies on the key

pair concept; there must be a private key only known to the particular user so that when the user

signs some data, the data is uniquely identified. The authors also state that to create an effective

digital signature, signature-related data encryption is done using the private key. Decryption can

only be done using the signer's public key. According to Lutkevich, Brunskill & Loshin (2021),

if a third party accesses the signer's private key, there is a possibility of creating fraudulent

digital signatures using the document signer's name.

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Figure1: digital signature algorithm diagram. Source: (Lutkevich, Brunskill & Loshin, 2021).

Figure 1 infrastructure: - Digital signature makes use of a guided specific procedure that is

called public key infrastructure, which demands the provider to make use of specified mathematical

syntax to generate unique numbers named keys (Lakshmanan & Madheswaran, 2012). There are two

types of keys, public and private keys. The main function of the public key infrastructure is the setting

of the requirement that is involved in the generation of the digital signature Alrawais et al. (2018).

Every digital signature comprises a pair of keys held by the signer and is not shared with anyone, and

the signer uses it while signing the documents electronically. The other key is referred to as the public

key, which is openly available (Vigna & Casey 2016). Electronic signature sometimes requires

validation to ascertain that the digital signature surely belongs to the attached signer. Those who are

bestowed with this process's responsibility use the public key to certify the digital sign's correctness as

applied.

Public key infrastructure also has a mandate of enforcing extra requirements laid down by the

governing authorities such as digital certificate, certificate authority, the end-user enrollment software,
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and management of the tools used in the renewal and revoking of the signature certificate and keys. The

security of the digital signature remains a critical concern in the technology (Jaju & Chowhan, 2015).

That's why the certificate authority has to come in. Digital signatures greatly depend on the public and

private keys to implement the technology. There is an obligation to ensure that the keys are free from

any form of attacks such as forgery or malicious applications. Safety becomes paramount as when one

is sending the document for signing, safety and assurance take precedence by ensuring the keys are

genuinely and securely generated.

Certificate authority has to come in as a trust-enhancing provider globally accepted and certified

to ensure that the digital signatures' necessary security guidelines are observed and issues the digital

certificates (Santos, 2020). The involved party in document signing has to agree to use a specific CA

before initiating the process. Consequently, the user can use their certificate authority of choice by

using the Digital signature tool to access its cloud-based services that manage any transaction. Users

can also use other certificate authorities, BioPharma, and open trust (Santos, 2020).

3.1 SDS Used in the Project

3.1.1 DocuSign

The DocuSign is a digital signature tool with a great market share in e-signature

technologies. It offers security features such as auditing, authentication, and encryption (Sharma

& Mittal, 2019). The technology used behind DocuSign is PKI protocol which helps to use the

mathematical algorithm. This technology follows Figure 1 infrastructure (mention above). Also,

the DocuSign signature tool provides users with third-party integrations such as Dropbox

integration. Users of this technology cannot subscribe one-time, but instead, they have to

subscribe again after the expiration of their subscription (Coughenour, 2017). It uses text

message and ID verification as an authentication method.

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DocuSign uses the Cipher Algorithm to encrypt and secure the data. In other words,

digital signing makes use of mathematical algorithms which act as a cipher. The algorithm

creates data that matches the document signed referred to as hash, and the created data is

encrypted. The encrypted data forms what we now refer to as the digital signature, which

contains the date and time the document was signed. However, once the document's signing

changes, the digital signature becomes invalid.

3.1.2 SignNow

SignNow has solid security features to secure the data or information. Unlike in the other

digital signature technologies that include Advanced Threat Protection (ATP). However, the

SignNow software offers ATP at its business premium plan (Sadiku, Musa & Tembley, 2016). In

the SignNow software, electronic signing is possible without connecting to the internet.

SignNow stores its users' documents on SOC 2 certified servers to provide a high level of

security.

Also, SignNow provides its users a detailed document history that contains all the

affected changes alongside with the users who performed the changes (Ivanov et al., 2014). The

Audit Trail option in the SignNow software allows users to download their documents history

and view all the actions taken on the papers bearing respective timestamps and Internet Protocol

(IP) addresses. SignNow uses many authentication methods such as two-factor authentication,

email authentication, SMS authentication, and knowledge-based questions (Martin, 2017).

3.1.3 PandaDoc

Digitally signing a document using the PandaDoc is relatively easy as it involves dragging and

dropping a signature box into the paper. Using the software as a Service (SaaS) platform, users can

electronically create and forward agreements and recommendations to their clients (Tianhuang &
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Xiaoguang, 2010). The SaaS is designed to provide a complete packaged solution in which an end-user

can freely operate the service from anywhere. The paid PandaDoc's options include approval

workflows, content libraries, and advanced contact management tools (Buttner & Huss, 2014). This

technology uses OAuth2.0 protocol as an authorization framework protocol that allows its users to grant

third-party web site or application access to the user-protected resources without revealing their long-

term credentials and identity (Martin, 2017).

3.1.4 Adobe Sign

Adobe Sign's digital signature is powered by Acrobat and is an electronic signature that makes

use of certificate-based digital IDs, which are derived from the trusted cloud-based service providers or

the signer's local system (Cannon, 2020). The system functions by identifying the person who is

signing the document. The digital signature consists of encrypted information, which is unique to every

signer.

This technology uses the 'figure 1 infrastructure', which is mention above in detail. Adobe sign

allows for digital signing by placing the digital signature fields on the forms or documents that might be

through various processes such as dragging and dropping in the adobe signing authorization interface,

text tags, or authorization in the adobe acrobat Acro forms (Use digital signatures, 2020). Adobe is an

established and leading software for handling pdf documents, and as such, it has excellent reliable

export features (Parkhimenka, 2019). Using Adobe software, users can add signature fields to Microsoft

word pages and Google documents, which can then be moved to Dropbox for storage (Bakker, 2021).

The authentication method used in this technology is email verification (default), password-based

authentication, phone authentication premium and knowledge-based authentication (Tianhuang &

Xiaoguang, 2010).
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3.2 Previous Comparisons on Selected Studies

According to the previous researches have done on the selected four technologies, there

are many comparisons found. Some of them are listed below:

 The Business Premium plan that costs 135 USD monthly per user in DocuSign software

is available in SignNow for only 15 USD monthly per user (Sadiku, Musa & Tembley,

2016).

 The SignNow security focus is to provide users with a higher protection level at a lower

price than the other options like Adobe Sign (Cannon, 2020).

 The personalized branding feature in the business premium plan of SignNow is available

at a lower price than in PandaDoc (Lees, 2021).

 SignNow software is the best choice for any organization that considers security and

price as its most significant concerns. In comparison to the other digital signing

technologies, SignNow has less integration (Sharma & Mittal, 2019).

 PandaDoc software to individuals operating small businesses but with a large number of

signatures needed. The DocuSign signature technology is most suitable for large

organizations (Coughenour, 2017).

 The Business Premium subscription in Adobe Sign is cheaper than in DocuSign (Paul,

2017).

Therefore, according to the above comparisons, it can be estimated that most of the previous

researches is mainly done on the common areas which a normal user can compare by themselves.

As a result, we will deliver the comparison of selected technologies, particularly on the factors

which need more technical skill to compare it. Thus, our comparison will mainly focus on the
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technologies which actually works behind the chosen digital signature technologies, such as

authentication methods, security mechanism, integrate, hash algorithm, audit trail, and

outsourcing services. This will give deeper technical knowledge to an organization regards the

actual pros and cons of these technologies.

4.0 METHODOLOGY

Figure 2: How digital signatures technologies work

This document will state a proper format of methodology, which will be followed by the

selection of four different digital technologies, a comparison of selected technologies, and then

describes how these technologies will be effective for business and personal use as mentioned in

figure 2. For achieving the project's outcome, secondary data will be used, for instance, online

sources such as journal articles, books, and other academic materials.

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Four different
digital
signature
technologies

Methodology Comparison
criteria

Effectiveness
for business
and personal
use

Figure 3: Methodology criteria of the project.

4.1 Four different digital signature technologies:

Firstly, we have chosen four different digital signature technologies (Adobe Acrobat,

PandaDoc, SignNow, and DocuSign) on the basis of the popularity of all these technologies.

Also, these technologies have an almost similar feature which makes difficult to normal user to

choose the best technology according to their requirements.

4.2 Comparison Criteria

The chosen four digital signature technologies will be compared according to the following

criteria. All the technologies will compare as per the categories and sub-categories mentioned in

table 1.

Table 1. Comparison of four digital signature technologies

Categories Sub- categories Adobe sign DocuSign PandaDoc SignNow

Flexibility  Scalability

 Integrate ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
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 Technical skills

Security  Authentication methods

 Security mechanism

 Differences in context of ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
security and privacy

Technical  Attack/hack faced

 Hash algorithm ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

 Audit trail

General  Outsource services

 Cost ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

In the above table, the sign '✔' indicates that we will compare these technologies as per

categories and sub-categories and deliver it in the final report. Digital signatures technologies

will be compared in several ways mentioned in table 1 is explained below:

Firstly, for perfect comparison to determine the best signature solution, the research will

focus on flexibility, whereby assessing how digital signature is accommodative of personal and

business growth needs compared to another. The flexibility shows an ability to be easily

modified by any technology according to the organization's growth. Here, it will compare which

technology is more scalable and integrated. In most cases, organizations deploy digital signature

technologies to only one department. Still, after some time, the digital signature software is

extended to cover other departments in the organization (Reed-Woodard, 2018). As such, the

most suitable digital signature solution for an organization will be the one that supports multiple

deployment options.
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Additionally, an excellent digital signature solution will be the one that provides optimal

user experience across various devices, including mobile phones. The most suitable digital

signature solution for your organization will need to have global scalability by switching

between languages. The comparison will determine which digital signature solution is simple to

use even for users with little or no technical skills. The simplicity of digital signature software

makes it accessible to everyone who sends or signs a document. Also, simple digital signature

software is easy for IT professionals to administer.

Secondly, the comparison will be focused on security to determine which digital

signature technology will provide several authentication methods to validate known and

unknown users. Under the authentication method, it will be accessed that how they provide the

authenticity to the user. Also, the security mechanism will be analyzed for selected digital

signature technologies.

Thirdly, the technical issues will be compared to find out which digital signature

technology is more vulnerable than others and can and had attacked by hackers. The hash

algorithms will also compare to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen

technologies. Based on the audit trail, the research will compare to determine which digital

signature solution will capture and provide data about what took place during the process of

signing documents. The audit trail is essential in recording information such as who signed the

paper, the timestamp of signing, and who authorized the signing.

Fourthly, a 'general' category is added to compare the services which are outsourced by

the selected technologies, which will ensure the dependence of these technologies on other

companies. The cost will also be compared as it is an essential factor for an organization when

choosing any digital signature technology.

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4.3 Effectiveness for business and personal use

After the comparison of selected technologies, several scenarios will be made according

to different use-case, which can be helpful for organizations to select the digital signature

technology with ease according to their requirements and needs.

This research methodology's main objective is to compare various digital signature

technologies to help determine the best situations where one can apply the respective digital

technologies.

5.0 RESULTS

Considering that there are various digital signature technologies suitable for different use-

cases, we can expect that the users will avoid being financially exploited to get digital signature

technologies. It is essential to focus more on simplicity and convenience and maximize digital

signature software workflows' efficiency.

The final deliverable will highlight that users should consider using alternative digital

signature solutions rather than which they are already using or going to use. The final report will

provide the critical features of specific digital signature software in different use-cases, then the

user may not satisfy with how their existing software handles their particular business or

personal demands.

6.0 DISCUSSION

To resolve the highlighted issues in the problem statements and after deeply studying

several research papers about digital signature technologies, we come up with these below

questions:
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 What are the similarities and differences between the four chosen digital signature

technologies?

 What are the best situations where these digital signature technologies can be used in

organizations?

 How will the digital signature technologies be helpful in different use-cases?

Figure 4: Schematic process of signing and verification

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Functions/links/5cd95027458515712ea6d72a/A-Comprehensive-Study-on-Digital-
Signatures-with-Hash-Functions.pdf

Use digital signatures. (2020). Retrieved from https://helpx.adobe.com/sign/using/digital-

signatures.html#:~:text=Digital%20Signatures%20are%20a%20type,the%20person
%20signing%20a%20document.

Vigna, P., & Casey, M. J. (2016). The age of cryptocurrency: how bitcoin and the blockchain are
challenging the global economic order. Retrieved from
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-age-of-cryptocurrency_b_9543278

Weast, T. (2011). American Sign Language tone and intonation: A phonetic analysis of eyebrow
properties. Formational units in sign languages, 203, 225. Retrieved from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/18f7/92df523e5a006c132b65b9ea0e576518f457.pdf

Zhang, J. (2010). A study on the application of digital signature technology. In 2010

International Conference on Networking and Digital Society Vol. 1, pp. 498-501.
Retrieved from https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5479249

8.0 APPENDIX

Categ Subcategories Adobe sign DocuSig PandaD SignNow

ories n oc

-Single users You can -Clients -Offers

 25

and multi- send a can unlimited

user maximu send an documents
subscription m of 100 unlimite uploads
plans have documen d -One user per
150 ts that number subscription
transactions can stay of - Very scalable
per user per for 30 docume in efforts to
year. days in nts make
-Documents docuSign - document
can be sent . Unlimite administratio
 Scala to one or - Easy to d n and
bility multiple scale as maximu document
parties for template m processing as
signatures. s can be number convenient as
-Very scalable shared of users possible.
in efforts to across -Offers
make the e-
document workforc signing
administratio e. solution
n and only.
document The
processing as limitatio
convenient as n makes
Flexib possible. scaling
ility difficult.

-Adobe Sign - -Zapier -Easily

integrates Integrate integrati integrates
with AODOCS s with on with G-suite,
 Integr
to easily NetSuite, NetSuite,
ate
send, e-sign, Google, Egnyte, and
track and Apple, salesforce
manage Salesforc
forms e, and
Microso
ft for
business
solutions
.
 26

- Enhances -A bit -Deep - Less

improved complex statistic technical skills
mobile and to use al are required
desktop without analysis to use the
 Techn workflow, advance knowled account.
ical skills and thus d ge. Anybody can
teams can technical -Strong use Sign Now
coordinate skills. SQL easily.
smoothly. However skills
Additionally, , User and
step by step guide data
tutorials are manuals visualiza
available on how tion
to use tools
Docu experie
signs are nce like
available Tableau.
online.

-Anyone with -The - -The sign-up

 Sign- a valid email signing PandaD process is
up address can process oc flexible in that
requirements create a free do not Signup the user can
account with require forms create a new
the adobe the are account on
sign. printing easily the Sign now
-The senders or capture application or
of the scanning d within sign in using
documents of the a short the Facebook
do not physical time or google
require to documen which signing
upload the ts saves credentials to
document to The time access the
sign as they technolo and services.
only need gy resourc
URL access to applied es.
the required requires -The
documents. only new
-Signers can account user
have their registrati uses
account on and a drag
saved in the finger or and
system once stylus in drop
it is created. capturin builder,
g the paymen
signature t
s. buttons
and
automat
ed
 27

online
storage
Syncing.

-The - -The -SignNow has

 Clou hosting is DocuSign softwa deployed a
done by the signature re private cloud
d solutions
provides solution, 2.0.
Amazon a
utilizes It acts as a
Web streamli Amazo stand-alone e-
services ned n signing
and process Softwa solution that
Microsoft where re uses the
Azure. It is employe service common
always e's s as access card
signature for the
uptime and their
s are organizations
is highly hosted in
hostin subscribed
resilient, the g and provides
and organiza provid a secure
experience tion's er, workspace of
s minimal digital which the client's
impact if centre. allows choice.
any DocuSign for the
allows
hardware integra
for
fails. encrypti tion
on with
complian third-
. ce by party
meeting applica
all tions
security creatin
requirem
ents in
g
terms of flexibil
identity ity
verificati when
on, change
protectin s
g the occur.
data, and
establish
ing the
security
controls
as
detailed
by Cloud
Security
 28

Alliance.
-Email -Access Authe -Two-factor
verification code nticati authenticatio
(default), Authenti on n, Email
Password- cation, authenticatio
based SMS
throug n, SMS
authenticatio Authenti h the Authenticatio
 Authe n, Phone cation, genera n, and
ntication Authenticatio ID tion of knowledge-
methods n Premium Verificati autom based
and on (IDV) atic questions
knowledge certific
Based
ates,
Authenticatio
Securi
n (Chen et al.,
which
ty
2010) provid
es the
electro
nic
signatu
re
trails
such as
dates,
locatio
n, and
time
when
the
signin
g
occurs
 29

- -AES -
Maintenance 256-bit Panda -SSL 256-bit
of secure encrypti
 Secur Doc encryption
checksum of on for
ity mechanism
the applicati
uses a
used
document to on-level bank-
ensure their custome grade
confidentialit r data. AES
y and 256
integrity. encryp
-Using Public tion
Key
which
Infrastructure
(PKI)
uses a
(Martin,2017) secure
key
manag
ement
applica
tion.
 

-Adobe sign -The - The -Online data is

cloud users' PandaD subject to
signatures data is oc, just access by
allow for encrypte like cyber threats,
digital d using other and Sign now
signatures the best digital ensures the
applications, laid signatur security of the
which are down es, user's data
 The backed up by best ensures and records
similarities in the digital industry the following the
the context of certificates safety security world security
security and issued by the standard of their standards
privacy trusted s where process such as CCPA
service the is and HIPAA
providers. transmis guarant (Chen,
sion is eed. It 2017).
-Adobe sign backed Runs on
hosting and up using Amazon
security is establish AWS,
held on a ed digital which is
secure and certificat securing
trusted cloud e as it is
hosting AWS technolo certified
and Micro gies. by
Azure where various
only the bodies
 30

authorized such as
employees HIPAA,
are allowed ISO
to have 27001,
access to the and PCI
server(De DSS
Capitani di level 1
Vimercati, (Chen,
2017). 2017)

-Hash - -SignNow
-Adobe sign digital
 How algorith PandaD makes use of
to hash signatures are m is oc DSA, RSA,
algorithm is applied makes AND ECDSA
embedded with to the use of a algorithms
different in
each software encryption codes documen public (Lindell, 2017)
t data key
which are a bunch of during algorith
zeros encrypted with the m
signing. where
the sender's private The the
key. resulting algorith
output m is
of the triggere
-The algorithm used is algorith d once
m (hash the
a one-way function in
value) is panda
which the output the docume
represen nt is
value is assigned to
tation of signed
the signature the input and a
documen hash
algorithm with the
t data. value
private key to create The hash gets
value is created
digital signature
encrypte dependi
results (Lindgren, d ng on
2016). through the
the docume
signer's nt's
private content
key, and is
which encrypt
produces ed using
the the
documen PandaD
t's digital oc
 31

signature private
. Any and
change embedd
on the ed on
form the PDF.
invalidat
es the
digital
signature
.

-Integration - - -Integration
API with the Salesforc Integrati with sandbox
payment e on API APIs with
modules such applicati with the email
as Recurly. on apex banks notification
 Outso tool kit such as and
urce services APIs to Eastern payments,
used by all facilitate Bank, HubSpot.
four payment Hubspot
Gener of , google
al services.

 User -Allows the - The -New - The user is

creation creation of an account users created
account to creation are through the
access the begins added system
server if one with the to the administrator
has a valid DocuSign platform -he/she
email Admin through captures the
address. adding, link email address,
-free the user invited first name,
accounts are to the by the and last name
only for the DocuSign admin, of the user for
signer's of account account the account
the setup owners, creation and
documents page, or can be
-The account where manage categorized
creation the user rs according to
procedure is sent an The various
involves email account existing
visiting the notificati users groups.
registration on to are
page, activate categori
creating a the new sed
free account user accordin
link, filling - user g to
individual activates their
info, and the roles in
verification is account, the
done via and the process
 32

email. admin (Brown,

adds 2019).
him/her
to the
electroni
c
signature
setup
page
-the
Core-CT
security
gives
notificati
on to the
user that
the
account
has been
created.

- Adobe Sign - - -SignNow is

 Comp is compliant DocuSign PandaD compliant
liance with set with the laid complies oc is with the
global down bodies with certified HIPAA, SOC 2
standards to control the multiple by TYPE, and PCI
services such regulator various DSS
as ISO 27001, y bodies bodies
PCI, DSS, and establish such as
FedRAMP. ed such PCI DSS,
It allows as AMA, FedRAM
organizatio CFR, TSP, P, ISO
ns to and 27001,
eIDAS SOC 2
integrate (Alimeha TYPE,
with the j, 2021) DoD
regulatory CSM,
bodies and and PCI
help them DSS
meet the (McLaug
required hlin,
2020).
certificatio
n such as
GLBA,
HIPAA,
and CFR
Part11(Mc
Laughlin,
2020).