WO2014033695A1

WO2014033695A1 - Method and electronic system for remote signature of electronic documents with digital certificate and time stamps

Info

Publication number: WO2014033695A1
Application number: PCT/IB2013/058260
Authority: WO
Inventors: Giuseppe GUCCIONE
Original assignee: Guccione Giuseppe
Priority date: 2012-09-03
Filing date: 2013-09-03
Publication date: 2014-03-06
Also published as: ITMI20121469A1

Abstract

A method for remote signature of at least one electronic document, comprising the steps of: defining at least one administrator station and at least one client station; establishing a video call between said administrator and client stations; affixing digital signatures to said at least one electronic document at said at least one client station, and time stamps at said at least one administrator station and said at least one client station; recording said video call, and affixing a time stamp thereto.

Description

METHOD AND ELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR REMOTE SIGNATURE OF ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS WITH DIGITAL CERTIFICATES AND TIME STAMPS

DESCRIPTION

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to a method and an electronic system for remote signature of electronic documents with digital certificates and time stamps. j

Background art I

There is an increasing need for advanced electronic systems capable ^!of facilitating remote activities by allowing virtual interrelations between people, thus fully replacing real interrelations for the purpose of resource optimization in terms of space, time and costs. j

In particular, a need has arisen to provide systems for secure remote identification of individuals wanting to remotely sign electronic documents, e.g. contractual ones, with the same level of certainty as that which is ensured by direct contact between individuals, as well as for verifying and certifying the transmission and exchange of electronic documents and filing and making available said electronic documents, while ensuring content unchangeability and a fast, secure, certified and economical communication channel. The virtualization of meetings between people with legal validity would ensure considerable savings, with immediate benefits for the parties involved.

A straightforward example of use of such systems can be found in the field of credit brokerage, wherein, also in order to meet legal requirements (e.g. law decree 141/2010 in Italy), every financial agent or credit brokerage company must corpe into direct contact with the public, so that clients can be personally recognized byj an appointed employee or collaborator known to a banking body (e.g. Banca d'ltalia). This procedure implies that many expenses must be incurred by credit brokerage companies or agents, resulting in higher costs for the end client. Software procedures for video conferences (e.g. Skype, etc.) and hardware devices (fingerprint readers, signature scanners, etc.) are known in the art, which however are not integrated or certified and cannot ensure the truthfulness of the acquired information. For this reason, the result obtained from video conferences and from the other peripherals can be easily altered and cannot therefore be considered to be a "valid" public contact system suitable for certifying the parties' identities; furthermore, it would violate the international anti-money laundering regulation.

One example of said known techniques is described in patent application US2003/070072-A1, wherein the described procedure does not ensure a secure identification of the client in video conference and cannot validly document it, so that said procedure is unsuitable to the purpose.

It emerges therefore that there is currently no tool for remote signature of a document that can certify the identity of an individual wanting to sign a document, elg. a financing contract, so that any contract which might be remotely signed by an individual in the absence of an accredited person will not be valid. !

Summary of the invention

It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a method and an electronic system for remote signature of electronic documents with digital certificates and time stamps, which can overcome all the above-mentioned problems.

The present invention relates to a method for remote signature of at least one electronic

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document, comprising the steps of: ;

- defining at least one administrator station and at least one client station;■.

- establishing a video call between said administrator and client stations;

- affixing digital signatures to said at least one electronic document at said at least one client station, and time stamps at said at least one administrator station and said at least one client station;

- recording said video call, and affixing a time stamp thereto.

More in particular, the method for remote signature of electronic documents according to the invention comprises the following steps:

- starting a bidirectional electronic connection between said administrator and client stations via web; j

- through first software for secure video call management and recording, establishing said video call between said administrator and client stations over said bidirectional electronic connection, with said video call recording; j

- sending said at least one electronic document through certified electronic mail from said administrator station to said client station; ^>,

- through second software for affixing digital signatures to electronic documents, affixing client's digital signatures to said at least one electronic document at the client station, and sending it through said certified electronic mail to the administrator station;

- through said second software at the ao^ministrator station, verifying that said at least one electronic document is correct, and affixing administrator's digital signatures to said at least one electronic document;

- at the administrator station, through third software for affixing time stamps to electronic documents and video calls, affixing time stamps to said at least one electronic document and, through said first software, closing said video call and saving it as a file, and ending said bidirectional electronic connection; j

- through said third software at the administrator station, affixing said time stamps to said video call file; j

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- obtaining an integration of said at least one electronic document and said video call file with digital signatures and time stamps.

It is a particular object of the present invention to provide a method and an electronic system for remote signature of electronic documents with digital certificates and time stamps as set out in the appended claims, which are an integral part of the present description.

Brief description of the drawings

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment (and variants) thereof and from the annexed drawings, which are only supplied by way of non-limiting example, wherein: |

Figures 1 and 2 show an operating flow chart of the method according jto the present invention. j

Detailed description of embodiments of the invention

The following will describe an example of embodiment of the method and electronic system according to the invention, with reference to the annexed drawings.

The method is advantageously carried out by means of a software procedure.

According to the method, at least one system administrator station and a number of

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client stations are defined. The following description will refer to the interaction between the administrator station and a client station, but it is clear that the same kind of interaction may also apply to a larger number of client stations, each one! interfacing to the administrator station.

j ⁷or example, at the administrator station there may be a financial agent, while at the ilient station there may be a person who is about to sign an electronic document relating o a financing contract. To this end, the person who is to sign the financing document mist be recognized with certainty. I

n accordance with one aspect of the invention, the software procedure provides for lignatures to be remotely affixed to an electronic document through the; use of means

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or affixing remote digital signatures and time stamps, with recorded video call.

Some of the terms used within this context are described below.

\ "Digital Signature" is meant to be the electronic equivalent of! a traditional 'autograph" signature affixed on paper. A Digital Signature is permanently associated vith the electronic document to which it is affixed and enriches the latter with

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nformation certifying its integrity, authenticity and non-repudiation, thereby allowing he signed document to have full evidentiary effectiveness.

V "Remote Digital Signature" is meant to be a digital signature that uses an luthentication of the known OTP (One Time Password) type or through ajpersonal PIN, ind represents an innovative* easy-to-use and secure technology that provides numerous idvantages, among which, for example, the possibility of affixing Digital Signatures Adthout having to install any dedicated hardware, thus allowing electronic; documents to >e digitally signed via Web with the utmost security.

"Time Stamp" is meant to be a service offered by an Accredited Certifier, which dlows to associate certain and legally valid date and time to an electronic document, hereby allowing to associate a time validation which is opposable to third parties and legally valid (e.g. pursuant to the Italian law, Art. 20, subsection 3 of the Digital Administration Code as per D.L. 82/2005). The Time Stamp service C£jn be used on iigitally unsigned files, in order to ensure a certain and legally valid time setting hereof, as well as on electronic documents to which a Digital Signature has been affixed: in this case, the Time Stamp will attest the exact time instant when the document was created, transmitted or filed. j

The electronic system comprises known hardware and software means at each station, such as desktop or portable personal computers equipped with a video camera and an Internet connection, and one or more electronic systems acting as servers,

(n addition, the system comprises means for implementing the invention! that will now be described through one example of embodiment of the electronic procedure, with reference to the annexed Figures 1 and 2.

In particular, the following software means are used:

- software for affixing digital signatures to electronic documents, such as, for example, i

"Axo-PDF View2Sign" by company ANDXOR Soluzioni j Informatiche i

(www.andxor.if), hereafter referred to as Axo-PDF;

- software for secure web video call management and recording, such as, for example, "ooVoo" by company ooVoo LLC (www.oovoo.com^'), hereafter referred to as ooVoo;

- software for affixing time stamps to electronic documents and video calls, such as, for example, "ArubaSign" by company Aruba S.p.A. (www.aruba.it^'). hereafter referred to as ArubaSign. I

At the Client station there is a client who needs to start the electronic procedure of the invention in order to remotely affix digital signatures to one or more electronic documents, and who needs to have a digital signature certificate, issued beforehand by an accredited certifying body through the system administrator, which certifies the client's identity via physical contact.

Audiovisual contact must be remotely established between the system administrator station and the client station, i.e. via an Internet connection.

The administrator must beforehand prepare, at his/her own station, the electronic documents that the client will have to sign digitally.

PDF files of the documents are prepared, with specific «signature fields » to be signed by the client. These documents have been previously treated by the "Axo-PDF"

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program, which includes an "Add signature field" item that allows placing the required

«signature fields» on the pages of the electronic document to be signed.

Preferably, the client must also physically sign paper documents, which! are copies of the electronic documents, and then send them to the administrator.

Furthermore, prior to establishing the remote audiovisual contact with the client station, the "Axo-PDF" software must be configured properly at the administrator station in order to set into the program the certified digital credentials of the client, which will be used by the software to recognize with certainty the user's identity via the remote procedure. i

When this phase is complete, the client will be able to digitally sign the documents sent by the system administrator.

With reference to Figure 1, at step 1 the web browser is launched at the¹ client station and access is gained to the home page of the procedure management program, where there is a link for establishing a web video call. A login page will appear, which will prompt to enter access credentials enabling the client to manage and start an online connection to the administrator station: such video call-enabling credentials have been communicated to the client station from the administrator station.

At step 2, through the "ooVoo" software, the administrator station accepts the contact

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request and starts the video call via Internet connection. The video call is recorded by the special function provided by the software that saves the audio/video cbrnmunication stream, and a time stamp will then be affixed thereto.

At step 3, the "Axo-PDF" software is started at the administrator station: the electronic documents where digital signatures must be affixed are prepared and sent, via a connection to a first digital signature management server SI, from thej administrator station to the client station via certified electronic mail PEC, the e-mailj including the

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attachments to be signed with the client's remote digital certificate. j

At step 4, the "Axo-PDF" software is started at the client station: the received files are opened and the digital signatures are affixed into the fields included in the documents themselves. This procedure takes place by means of the connection to the server SI, which is adapted to recognize the affixed signatures, since it had previously recorded the signee's identity.

At the next step 5, the electronic documents with the affixed digital signatures are saved at the client station and are then sent via certified electronic mail PEC to the administrator station, communicating over the channel of the open video call.

At the next step 6, the electronic documents containing the client's certified digital signature sent from the client station are received and saved locally at the administrator station.

At the next step 7, at the administrator station, the "Axo-PDF" software opens the client's files via the connection to the server SI and verifies that the documents are correct, i.e. that they have not been modified and that the digital signature has not been counterfeited. If this check is gone through successfully, at the administrator station also the administrator's certified digital signature is affixed into specific fields, and the documents signed by both parties are saved. Through video call, the positive outcome of the procedure is communicated and the signed documents are thus accepted.

With reference to Figure 2, at the next step 8 the "ArubaSign" software at the administrator station affixes a time stamp, via a connection to a second time stamp management server S2, to all the electronic documents to which the certified digital signatures of both the client and the administrator have been affixed.

The positive outcome of the operations is thus communicated to the client and the video call is ended.

At the next step 9, at the administrator station, the "ooVoo" software locally saves the

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file that contains the whole video call just completed.

At the next step 10, at the administrator station, the "ArubaSign" software affixes a time stamp, via the connection to the server S2, also to the file (in the FLV format) generated when recording the video call with the client.

At the next step 11 , at the administrator station, at the end of the procedure the files of the electronic documents and of the video call, all with digital signatures and time stamps, are integrated and preferably sent via certified electronic mail PEC to the contract management body, e.g. a bank that manages the financing operation.

The present invention can advantageously be implemented through a computer program, which comprises coding means for implementing one or more steps of the method when said program is executed on a computer. It is therefore understood that the protection scope extends to said computer program as well as to computer-readable means that comprise a recorded message, said computer-readable meahs comprising program coding means for implementing one or more steps of the method when said program is executed on a computer.

The above-described example of embodiment may be subject to variations without departing from the protection scope of the present invention, including ;all equivalent designs known to a man skilled in the art.

The advantages deriving from the application of the present invention are apparent. By joining together two tools like certified remote digital signature and time stamp, it is possible to attest the signees' identity even for documents received and sent remotely (via web), while also certifying the time when such operations have taken place.

The recorded video call to which the time stamp is affixed also attests the truthfulness of the time at which the entire contractual stage has taken place and reinforces the ((certified » documentation to be sent to the contract management body, which will receive remotely signed contractual documents that will be legally valid.

From the above description those skilled in the art will be able to produce the object of

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! the invention without introducing any further construction details.

Claims

1. A method for remote signature of at least one electronic document, characterized in that it comprises the steps of:

defining at least one administrator station and at least one client station;

- establishing a video call between said aciministrator and client stations; j

affixing digital signatures to said at least one electronic document at said at least one client station, and time stamps at said at least one administrator station and said at least one client station; j

- recording said video call, and affixing a time stamp thereto.

2. A method according to claim 1 , comprising the following steps:

- through first software (ooVoo) for secure video call management and recording, establishing said video call between said administrator and client stations over said bidirectional electronic connection, with said video call recording;

- sending said at least one electronic document through certified electronic mail (PEC) from said administrator station to said client station; >

- through second software (Axo-PDF) for affixing digital signatures to electronic documents, affixing client's digital signatures to said at least one electronic document at the client station, and sending it through said certified electronic mail (PEC) to the administrator station;

- through said second software at the administrator station, verifying that said at least one electronic document is correct, and affixing administrator's digital signatures to said at least one electronic document; j

- at the administrator station, through third software (ArubaSign) for j affixing time stamps to electronic documents and video calls, affixing time stamps to said at least one electronic document and, through said first software, closing said video call and saving it as a file, and ending said bidirectional electronic connection;

- through said third software at the administrator station, affixing said time stamps to said video call file; I

3. An electronic system for remote signature of electronic documents, characterized in that it comprises means for implementing the method of claim 1 or 2.

4. A computer program comprising program coding means adapted to implement the steps of claim 1 or 2 when said program is executed on a computer.

5. Computer-readable means comprising a recorded program, said computer-readable means comprising program coding means adapted to implement the steps of claim 1 or 2 when said program is executed on a computer. ί