Digital Signatures

I'm not quite sure what you are looking for, but I use https://www.identrust.com/ for all my ecerts. The site contains many articles with respect to creating, importing and inserting signatures. We use it with LDD and all other outgoing surveys which require digital certification.

Is the only way to get a digital signature to pay some website for one?

Mark Mayer, post: 442704, member: 424 wrote: Is the only way to get a digital signature to pay some website for one?

That's the only way to you can send a "certified legal signature". It's really not that expensive, mine is $99 for two years.

The encryption and validation is the key (pun intended).
I used cosign for my digital signature. It worked well but was easy to strip away. Documents need to contain a companion note that if the cosign validation block is missing it has been tampered with.

Mark Mayer, post: 442704, member: 424 wrote: Is the only way to get a digital signature to pay some website for one?

I have posted the following link before to an article that appeared in Spring 2009 issue of Ohio Surveying News. Most of the information following the link updates information in the article. I believe at some point in time state licensing agencies will begin to issue a digital ID as part of professional license renewal.

[INDENT]http://nexgenaccess.com/~dmorlan/Electronic%20Information%20Transfer.pdf&apos ;">Electronic Information Transfer Requirements
( Adobe Reader ".pdf" format )[/INDENT]

There are other ways to create a digital signature file. There are several common programs that will create a digital certificate file and store it on your computer or a thumb drive. The file may then be used by most programs capable of using such a file to secure drawings (DWG or DGN), word processing documents, spreadsheets or portable document format (PDF) files. The links below should help with picking your solution(s).
[INDENT]http://www.adobepress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1708161&seqNum=4&apos ;">Adobe Acrobat creating a digital certificate file.
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Office-2010-Security-video-Create-a-digital-certificate-now-F843DC05-0736-46EB-B38C-00A6992DD1F9&apos ;">Office 2010 Security video: Create a digital certificate now.
Digital Signature Software from PKI Advanced Solutions includes a free online digital certificate generator.
[INDENT]Digital Certificates
https://www.signfiles.com/digital-certificates/&apos ;">PFX Digital Certificate Generator[/INDENT][/INDENT]

The self generated certificate files created by MS Office, Adobe Acrobat or several shareware programs would be similar to a stamp/crimp seal and personal signature on a paper document. Everything is based on your personal reliability. The higher levels of certification (where you are required to pay) are viewed as more reliable proof of who you are. The highest levels require you to submit ID documents and may require a personal interview to verify your identity before the certificate is issued. These may be required as electronic ID for companies and individuals doing business with the U.S. government.

Mark
Oregon & Washington require a 2 part third party verifiable digital signature. I just read the WA board's newsletter were they mentioned that 1 of the 2 COAs they recommend was out of business and the other was cost prohibiting.

John Putnam, post: 442761, member: 1188 wrote: Oregon & Washington require a 2 part third party verifiable digital signature.

I knew there was a digital signature law. For now I'd just like to self-certify if possible for "proof of concept" purposes before shelling out big bucks. Could be that the state has made it impractical.

Mark Mayer, post: 442778, member: 424 wrote: I knew there was a digital signature law. For now I'd just like to self-certify if possible for "proof of concept" purposes before shelling out big bucks.

The pdf copy of the article I linked above was my "proof of concept" effort. The pdf file linked contains two digital signatures, first self generated, second from VeriSign. Adding the VeriSign signature invalidated the first signature. However, the verification information for both digital signatures is still available by clicking on the signature blocks. VeriSign has been acquired by Symantec and the products available have changed.

John Putnam, post: 442761, member: 1188 wrote: Mark
Oregon & Washington require a 2 part third party verifiable digital signature. I just read the WA board's newsletter were they mentioned that 1 of the 2 COAs they recommend was out of business and the other was cost prohibiting.

I understand that the BOR is working on a way to become the certifying agency themselves. I should go to one of their meetings and ask about this.

Daniel Ralph, post: 442796, member: 8817 wrote: I understand that the BOR is working on a way to become the certifying agency themselves. I should go to one of their meetings and ask about this.

That would be great. I thought they were just looking at other vendor options. Maybe NCEES should do it

Daniel Ralph, post: 442796, member: 8817 wrote: I understand that the BOR is working on a way to become the certifying agency themselves. I should go to one of their meetings and ask about this.

They do have http://www.dol.wa.gov/business/engineerslandsurveyors/docs/eDocsInterpretiveGuideline.pdf&apos ;">this document on their website. But it doesn't say anything about them becoming the certifying agency. If they don't do it, maybe this website could. If I have to send somebody $99 every 2 years I'd just as soon have it be Wendell & Angel. Of course I say that not knowing what sort of effort is involved.

Mark Mayer, post: 442804, member: 424 wrote: They do have http://www.dol.wa.gov/business/engineerslandsurveyors/docs/eDocsInterpretiveGuideline.pdf&apos ;">this document on their website. But it doesn't say anything about them becoming the certifying agency. If they don't do it, maybe this website could. If I have to send somebody $99 every 2 years I'd just as soon have it be Wendell & Angel. Of course I say that not knowing what sort of effort is involved.

Mark,
Mention of this is buried in the minutes of BOR meetings that are also available on the webpage. Those are mildly interesting reading anyway.

The BOR survey members have mentioned this lately at the DNR SAB meetings as well. My understanding, from what they said there, is that they are looking into a way to get this done. As others mentioned, one of the options is becoming the certifying agency. It didn't sound like a quick and simple solution though.

I work for a government agency. We have to insert our ID card into a card reader to access our computers. This ID card has my certificate stored on it protected by a PIN number. This is also how we sign documents. I would like to see the BOR adopt a similar system for signing surveys. When your license expires, your ability to sign surveys goes away. That would be a game hanger for those few that don't renew until they get the nasty gram from the board. It could also nag you for the last month of the license year to renew.

John Putnam, post: 442800, member: 1188 wrote: That would be great. I thought they were just looking at other vendor options. Maybe NCEES should do it

The current (August) NCEES Newsletter has an article "Understanding Digital Signatures" on page 1.
http://ncees.org/wp-content/uploads/Licensure-Exchange_August-2017.pdf
It's clear and well written by some the Oregon (OBEELS) folks but I don't see anything about NCEES (or the Oregon Board) getting into the Digital Signature biz. NCEES has a robust budget - if you can convince them that this would somehow promote licensure ...

Here in North Carolina, our board has addressed the use of digital signatures. The following requirements apply:

• 1103(e) (contƒ??d) The term ƒ??digital signatureƒ? shall be an electronic authentication process that is attached to or logically associated with an electronic document. The digital signature shall be:

[INDENT][INDENT](1) Unique to the licensee using it;
(2) Capable of verification;
(3) Under the sole control of the licensee; and
(4) Linked to a document in such a manner that the digital signature is invalidated if any data in the document is changed.
[/INDENT]
We have been using a web vendor, DocVerify, which meets all these requirements, as one of the steps for e-recording. The signed file is a digital original, which can be recorded as our statutes won't allow a copy to be recorded except for very specific circumstances. The PDF files, if altered, show a big red stamp, "This Document has been altered". However, you can do as little as re-naming the PDF file to trigger this.

We found once we started signing things digitally, that it's really convenient. Beats plotting a drawing just to sign it and scan it back to a PDF, and the signed PDF's, if produced as vector PDF's, remain vectors after signing, which means no loss of quality or detail from scanning.

When we signed up for Docverify, the initial membership was $10 a month, but the document produced had a cover page which we disliked and we decided to upgrade to turn the cover page off. However, the $10 a month was well worth it as we started digitally signing darn near everything. [/INDENT]

That sounds like a GPG signature qualifies. Do any of you use GPG to sign drawings?