The Risk Series: Ignoring LTV = Risky Business

All risks have one thing in common: unpredictability.  We usually think of risk as too much of a bad thing, but risk can lead to positive opportunities. Ultimately, the type of risk taken is determined by its outcome, and that outcome is nearly impossible to predict.

An article in Inc. Magazine says, “Understanding the fine line between the two can mean the difference between wise business decisions and careless mistakes… When individuals grasp the healthy aspects of taking risks, they can begin to develop methods for taking smart risks to improve their business.”

Before a business collects all of the necessary information, going paperless can seem risky. There are concerns about expenditure, security, longevity and legality before true benefits are revealed. SIGNiX’s Independent E-Signature™ solution addresses all concerns a business owner may have by proving to be cost-effective, secure, permanent and legal.

An Independent E-Signature™ is a digital signature that permanently embeds legal evidence into each e-signed document, while also verifying that the signer is who they say they are. This is critically different from a dependent e-signature that doesn’t embed the evidence and often doesn’t require appropriate identity authentication.

The tool used to authenticate a digital signature process is an issued digital certificate. This certificate stands as a seal of approval to verify a signer’s or service’s identity and their authority to sign the intended document, but a certificate has a short lifespan of only one to three years.  

What happens when the digital signing certificate expires?

Once a document is signed under the authority of a certificate, long-term validation can be activated. Long-term validation, or LTV, permanently embeds information about the validity of the certificate into the document. After a certificate expires, LTV stands as a testament to ensure the embedded information can be trusted. This means that the lifespan of a digitally signed document will last for many years beyond the certificate expiration time.

Choosing not to enable long-term validation on a PDF might lead to an invalid, untrustworthy document or contract.  LTV is critical, and not all e-signature vendors choose to use it. Selecting an e-signature vendor that does not enable long-term validation of your PDF is a risk that could lead to a disastrous outcome. If you have chosen SIGNiX as your e-signature vendor, you can rest assured knowing that LTV is enabled during every transaction.

Be a calculated risk taker by choosing SIGNiX’s Independent E-Signatures™.