Fax signatures - how secure are they?

Tristian Wilson was released from a Memphis jail on the authority of a forged fax message. So why, then, do we place so much faith in fax signatures? That's the excellent question posed by security expert Bruce Schneier.

Comments

[Jay Arrowood]

I did a demo of our e-signature product for a law professor in our state, and he asked, "instead of using e-signatures, why not just use a fax?" This professor, with all due respect, is the technology chairman for our state's bar association. Here was my response:

Lawyers are commissioned with the stewardship of client confidentiality, but when you fax a document to someone, how can you be sure who is at the other end of that fax machine or how long it sits on that fax machine? Your client’s confidential information may be exposed to anyone in that office, including janitors and overnight security people.

E-signature requests can be sent to password-protected email accounts and usually require a PIN to sign the document. That is two layers of security. With a PIN that you verbally give to someone before signing, you ensure who is actually signing the document.

Also, a faxed or mailed document goes through “many hands,” which further increases the risk of information leaks. When you think about the current fax workflow between two parties of an agreement, you have to print the document, fax, receive, manually circulate to sign, fax back, receive, sign, and scan to electronic format. I say scan back because many firms are moving towards an “e-Discovery” process. With an e-signature flow, you can eliminate the legwork, saves paper, and saves time.

[valicikae]

Fax email service with Popfax.com is much better than the fax machine! It's cheaper, easier and really convenient. Internet fax service saves lots of time and money. Besides this it's legal and very secure.