Digital Signature Legitimacy for Accounting in Australia

How to eSign a document: digital signature legitimacy for Accounting in Australia

it's a paperless world and digital transactions and document sharing are the norm but there is a problem Digital documents are more prone to security risks than a physical paper copy delivered from place to place that's why digital signatures are so important because they are a mathematical way of verifying the authenticity of digital messages to prevent forgery and tampering in the sending and receiving process think of them as the digital equivalent of a handwritten signature or a stamp seal digital signatures not only prevent impersonation but provide evidence of an electronic messages origin identity and status as well as a signers informed consent digital signatures are based on asymmetric cryptography a process that protects sensitive information with to mathematically linked keys a private key which is only known to the person it belongs to and a public key which is shared with anyone who needs to access the digital message encrypting and decrypting signature related data relies on both the sender and the receivers respective private and public keys this security banks on the trust that the sender's private key has not been shared with anyone else there are three different classes of digital signatures each with different levels of security and legality class 1 signatures provide a basic level of security for low-risk environments and are not legally binding for business documents class 2 signatures authenticate assignees identity against a pre verified database these signatures are used in higher risk environments where there's a moderate consequence with data compromised like efiling tax documents class three signatures require a person to present in front of a certifying authority to prove identity before signing this is reserved for e 10 during a ticketing and court filings where a breach or compromise results in major consequences