Protecting Your Signature Online

With the advent of social media, text messaging and e-mail forwarding, information has never traveled faster. But how can you be sure your private information won't fall into the wrong hands? Nowhere is this fear more realized than with digital signatures and signed documents being transmitted online. Just like forging a note from your mother, digital thieves can intercept a signature from you when you send a fax, send a digital signature file or send an e-mail. Once they have a copy of it, they can learn to forge it or retransmit it and rob you blind.

Fortunately, there are new communication technologies available that protect your digital signature and ensure that it stays on your invoices, contracts and even permission slips, and nowhere else.

Online Fax Services: While faxes sent over the phone line can be intercepted, internet fax services come with a 128-bit encryption so your signature transmissions stay completely protected as PDF files transmitted to your contacts only.

Digital Signatures: Software created to help you insert digital versions of your signature into documents is nothing new. But with the traditional fax machine falling out of favor in many American offices, digital signatures must find ways to protect their users if this technology is going to take off. By sending legally binding documentation, some software gives recipients peace of mind to know that the signature is authentic, while others protect it with a cloud-based encryption.