Digital Signature for Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 provides many improvements in security in comparison with its predecessors. And one of new functions is possibility of digital signature of documents. Signing a document, you confirm that you are the creator of document, and it will prove that a document wasn't changed since you created its creation.

You can create a digital signature for a document because of the same amount of reasons, on which you can affix your signature to a paper document. A digital signature is used for identification of digital documents creator (such as ordinary document, e-mail and macros) by cryptographic algorithms.
Digital signatures are based on digital certificates. Digital certificates are verifiers of identity issued by a trusted third party, called a certification authority (or CA). This works similarly to the use of standard identity documents in the non-electronic world. For example, a trusted third party such as a government entity or employer issues identity documents such as driver’s licenses, passports and employee ID cards on which others rely to verify that a person is whom he/she claims to be.

Digital certificates can be issued by certification authorities within an organization, such as a Windows® Server 2003 server running Windows Certificate Services, or a public certification authority such as VeriSign or Thawte.

Microsoft 2007 Office system documents can have invisible signatures or signatures lines added to them. When used together with other Microsoft 2007 Office system security technologies and security technologies included in the Microsoft Office Servers and Windows operating system, digital signatures provide another significant component of a strong defense in depth approach to security data stored in Microsoft 2007 Office system documents, workbooks and presentations.

PDF Digital Signatures

Introduction to PDF Digital Signatures

PDF digital signatures arises as a solution of great vitality to keep the electronic signing process in the digital sphere. The infrastructure for digital signatures exists in Acrobat, but vendors in this field have to do a lot before digital signatures in PDF become a momentous part of everyday reality. Some serious roll outs of digital signatures have taken place, for example in Belgium, but these were pretty lowly compared to the idea’s clear potential.
Almost all of paper-document workflows are rooted in filing offices and fax machines because paper is still the one document means that is certainly horizontal and still moves easily between organizations. Integrating digital signatures and electronic documents into these workflows without replacing the whole system doesn’t always attract. One of the most earnest barrier is the necessity (under the current implementation) of both sender and receiver being at least somewhat grasp to digital signatures in order to make the whole process work as aimed. Today’s digital signature technology is mainly effective in a vertically integrated environment.
Currently to put into PDF digital signature, one has to do more than just attach a signature image onto the electronic page. The good side is that the technology exists to make it all work sufficiently well. Once users create a Digital ID, design their signatures, know how to recognize a Signature field and understand what to do with it, they can sign PDF documents quickly, effectively and without paper.

Advantages of PDF Digital Signatures

PDF Digital signatures have a number of advantages over their inky ancestors:
1) A certified and signed PDF identifies itself as such when opened
2) Mouse-over a PDF signature to view its status
3) If changes have been made since signing, you’ll know
4) Acrobat provides information about the signature
5) If the document has changed, you’ll get a warning
6) Use any signature you like; includes graphics, text and information about your organization or location.

Important about PDF Digital Signatures

Adobe's digital signature solutions in Reader and Acrobat have something for everyone. Unfortunately, even the basics get complicated pretty quickly.
First, you can’t sign just any PDF. A signable PDF file must include a Digital Signature field, the device that offers the author greater control over the future use of the document. No special skill is required to make a PDF signable – just a copy of Adobe Acrobat Standard or Professional and a minimal understanding of form fields.
Note that the free Adobe Reader cannot sign a PDF unless the PDF has been “blessed” with extended usage rights (Reader Extensions). Without such rights, every “signer” must have Adobe Acrobat, or equivalent.
Apart from using the right software or a PDF with extended rights, signing a PDF requires a Digital ID. It’s not a familiar concept, even to users who consider themselves savvy to website logins, cookies, PIN numbers and other means of online identification. Digital IDs are issued by third parties, and may also be self-signed – that is, created without a third-party certificate authority. Adobe doesn’t recommend self-signed signatures, but offers precious little information as to the distinction, why one might care, or what exactly one should do to acquire a third-party ID.

Digital Signature Verification

Digital signature verification is the process of collation the digital signature by reference to the original message and a given public key, in that way determining whether the digital signature was created for that same message using the private key that corresponds to the referenced public key.
Verification of a digital signature is completed by calculating a new hash result of the original message by means of the same hash function used to create the digital signature. Then, using the public key and the new hash result, the verifier checks:
1) whether the digital signature was created using the corresponding private key;
2) whether the newly computed hash result matches the original hash result which was transformed into the digital signature during the signing process.
The verification software will confirm the digital signature as "verified" if:
1) the signer's private key was used to digitally sign the message, which is known to be the case if the signer's public key was used to verify the signature because the signer's public key will verify only a digital signature created with the signer's private key;
2) the message was unchanged, which is known to be the case if the hash result calculated by the verifier is identical to the hash result extracted from the digital signature during the verification process.

Electronic Signatures Higher Security Levels

Electronic Signatures Higher Security Levels

1. Usage of electronic signature pads in a "stand alone" application. This does not meet the test of a legal signature, especially because it does not bind the electronic signature to the document. Such signature can be removed simply by selection and pressing the delete button.
2. Use of digital signature software that encrypts the electronic signature, usage of Public/Private Key Infrastructure electronic signature technology. This safeguards electronic signatures and allows for verification of the signature with the use of the same software. The signature is captured using an electronic signature pads and stored in a file that can only be opened with a password. The signature generally meets all legal requirements and cannot be removed from the document.
3. By using digital certificates a signature also can be verified as “authentic”, similar to a notary public witnessing a paper signature. However, unlike a notary public witnessing a paper signature, these legal witnesses have not been established for the electronic world. These can be used within organizations to establish identities.
4. A higher form of security is to sign each document using digital signature pads. An electronic signature pad allows for a person to sign the document on screen. Similar to a paper signature, this allows for handwriting analysis to verify the authenticity of the signature.
5. The highest form of security is with the use of biometrics using a fingerprint or retina scan, which will unlock a person’s signature.

Signatures Security

Signatures Security

There are various levels of security of paper documents. Mostly applications enable signing document without anyone attesting this act. But higher level of security requires participating of witnesses. The definitive level of security is to have your signature witnessed by a notary public.
Moreover, in the electronic world there are different levels of security for electronic signatures. An electronic signature is an image, commonly in "tiff" format, with no security features. It is easy to copy that image and past it into another document. This is a perilous form of electronic signatures that some people have accepted. This can be considered as level 0 form of security.
The higher levels of security of electronic signatures are described in Electronic Signatures Higher Security Levels article.

Electronic Signatures Requirements

The whole area of electronic signatures makes confused most of organizations. People doubt that anything that looks like a signature on an electronic document is legal. Practically for using legal electronic signatures you must always sign documents by using appropriate software — the same requirement that is necessary for pen and paper signing.
Other requirements for both electronic and paper signing
1. Electronic signatures must be unique to the individual.
2. Electronic signatures must be verifiable as belonging to a person.
3. Electronic signatures must be under the sole control of the person signing (i.e., you cannot force someone to sign a document under duress).
4. Electronic signatures must be applied with intent.

Digital Signatures in Excel 2007 and Excel 2003

If you want to add a digital signature to your excel file, follow steps below.

Microsoft Office Excel 2007

Press the Microsoft Office Button > Prepare > Add a Digital Signature > OK.
Don't forget to save your Excel workbook in the Excel 2007 workbook format, before you add signatures.
If you get the warning message asking "Do you want to save the workbook as a Microsoft Office Excel Workbook?", click "Yes" and select the Excel Workbook (*.xlsx) format in the Save As dialog box.
When the workbook is saved, the dialog box "Get a Digital ID " is displayed. Choose the type of digital ID that you want to use, and then press "OK".
After you complete the before mentioned steps for the type of digital ID, the Excel workbook is signed.

Microsoft Office Excel 2003

Go to Tools menu > Options > Security tab > Digital Signatures > Add.
If you changed your Excel file and is didn't save it yet, or if you didn't save it in the Excel 2003 workbook format, the message "This workbook must be saved as a Microsoft Excel workbook before it can be digitally signed. Do you want to save the workbook?" appears.
You should save the file in the Microsoft Excel Workbook format to add the digital signature.
After your workbook is saved, the Select Certificate dialog box appears. Select the certificate to use, and click "OK".
Close the Digital Signatures dialog box (Click "OK").
You Excel workbook is signed.

E-Lock Digital Signatures

Digital Signature solutions by E-Lock are now used by the High Courts of India

E-Lock a leading provider of data security solutions has deployed multiple licenses of its Digital Signature product to the High Courts of India. The High Courts of India in a pursuit to shift to a paperless mode, selected the PKCS#7 compliant E-Lock product – DeskSeal Desktop.
The Indian IT Act 2000 provides legal recognition of electronic transactions and digital signatures. Section 5 of the Act gives legal recognition to digital signatures. At the moment, use of digital signatures is undertaken by sectors such as banking and financial services, online stock-trading portals and engineering organizations. The Government of India is stressing on e-governance as an effective delivery channel of all government services to citizens. As a result, several Government Organizations have undertaken the process of shifting their workflow to electronic mode.
E-Lock DeskSeal Desktop was offered to the High Courts through a Government agency. DeskSeal Desktop is a desktop-based digital signing utility that signs files of any format. As it is wizard-based, it enables even a novice user to digitally sign and verify files with ease. This product is PKCS#7 compliant, which enables users to abide by the regulations laid by e-signature laws worldwide.
“The deployment of our digital signature product at the High Courts talks about the initiative of Indian Government to go electronic. E-Lock has been providing its products & solutions to several other Government entities to fulfill this objective,” says Suniel Mande, VP Sales – E-Lock.

About E-Lock

E-Lock is leading brand of Digital Signature products and solutions. The E-Lock Digital Signatures are used across Government, Healthcare, Finance, Insurance and other sectors to secure and authenticate their electronic records and data. These products and solutions are compliant with various laws that affect the management of electronic information. E-Lock offers a wide range of digital signature products and solutions that can be classified as desktop based, web-based and server-based. The E-Lock products and solutions are simple to install and easy to use. Several organizations across the world use E-Lock solutions to go paperless and secure the data.

For more information about digital signatures, or to schedule an interview with www.elock.com please contact at info@elock.com

VBA Digital Signature

Digital Signature for VBA Project

Once you have your digital certificate installed, you can sign the VBA projects associated with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, templates, and add-ins. For Outlook, you can sign the VBA project that is associated with the installation of Outlook on a particular computer. Any time code in a signed VBA project is modified in any way, its digital signature is removed. However, modifying the contents of the document other than the VBA code won't invalidate the signature on a VBA project contained within the document. This is because only the VBA project is signed, not the entire document.
If you want to prevent users of your solution from accidentally modifying your VBA code and invalidating your signature, lock the VBA project before signing it. Locking your VBA project doesn't prevent another user from replacing the with another digital signature. This is allowed so that a system administrator or end user can replace a current signature with an approved signature or re-sign a document after a previous signature expires.
Similarly, if you produce an add-in that adds code to a document's VBA project, your code should determine if the project is digitally signed and notify the user of the consequences of modifying a signed VBA project before continuing.

VBA Digital Signature - How to sign VBA projects

You create digital signature for VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) project by using a digital certificate.
If you don't already have a digital certificate, you must obtain one.
You can obtain a digital certificate from a commercial certification authority, such as VeriSign, Inc., or from your internal security administrator or Information Technology (IT) professional. Or, you can create a digital signature yourself by using the Selfcert.exe tool.
Because a digital certificate you create yourself isn't issued by a formal certification authority, VBA projects signed by using such a certificate are referred to as self-signed projects. Depending on how Microsoft Office digital-signature features are being used in your organization, you might be prevented from using such a certificate, and other users might not be able to run self-signed macros for security reasons.

Steps for VBA Digital Signature

2. Open the file that contains the VBA project you want to sign.
3. On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Visual Basic Editor.
4. In the Project Explorer, select the project you want to sign.
5. On the Tools menu, click Digital Signature.
6. If you haven't previously selected a digital certificate or want to use another one, click Choose, select the certificate, and then click OK twice.
7. To use the current certificate, click OK.

Verisign Digital Signature

Digital Signatures became available as one of the AutoCAD extensions, part of the Autodesk Subscription program.

Verisign Digital Signature - How to Get

First of all, you need to get a digital signature. There are numerous certificate authorities that are happy to take your money and give you a digital signature -in fact, most of them offer a free trial option. Autodesk uses a company called Verisign as its digital-signature provider, but it isn't mandatory that you use them. The first time you launch the Digital Signature program, you will be sent to Verisign to get a digital signature (unless you already have one). There are different types of digital signatures depending on the level of security you need. If you want a digital signature that prompts for a password every time you use it, you'll have to pay more. You can even get a minimum-security signature on a 60-day trial basis for free, which I recommend until you decide you're completely sold on the digital-signature concept. When you're ready to make the commitment, you'll find you can get a digital signature for a year for $15.95. Digital signatures are stored in the REG file.

I found it very painful trying to move my digital signature from one computer to the next when I upgraded my laptop. I couldn't even buy another one because it was linked to my email address and Verisign kept telling me I already had a digital signature. After working with the Verisign customer service (and a few gray hairs later), I was finally able to figure out how to move it. Just a heads-up here!

Each digital signature ID is unique and is made up of a name, serial number, and an expiration date, along with other assorted information. Once you get your digital signature ID, AutoCAD will remember that long ID.

Verisign digital signature - How to attach in AutoCAD

After your digital signature is installed, you're ready to sign some documents. Simply execute the "Attach Digital Signature" command (external to AutoCAD), which is located in your Program menu under "Autodesk," and you'll see a dialog box displayed. We'll begin by selecting a couple of drawings we'd like to sign by picking the "Add files" button. There's even a simple Search mechanism included in the dialog, should you accidentally misplace your drawing files. After selecting the desired drawing files, you can time-stamp the signature by grabbing the time from the signing computer, or opt for an exact time from the time server of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the U.S. Naval observatory, or Caltech University. Finish off your signature with any pertinent comments by inputting any appropriate text. When you're ready to make it official, select the Sign Files button. If all goes well you'll be prompted with the number of signed files. The status for these files will change in the dialog.

Verisign digital signature - How to attach in Outlook

1. Go to https://digitalid.verisign.com/client/class1MS.htm in Internet Explorer.
2. Fill in your first name, last name, email address and a simple memorable password (in the challenge phrase box)
3. Select "I'd like to test drive a 60-day trial Digital Signature ID for free"
4. Scroll down and accept, check the details and agree.
5. When the email from Verisign comes in, copy the Digital PIN and click on the link.
6. Paste the Digital PIN into the new webpage and click "INSTALL", again Agree/say yes to the boxes it presents.
7. Open Outlook , go to Tools > Options > Security and tick the checkbox for "Add Digital Signature to outgoing messages"
8. Click OK.