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Question about official e-mail signature


Le_Murphant

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Hi tmn crew

I've heard recently that it was possible to have a signature that you could attach to e-mails that had the same legal value as a handwritten signature, which could be used for online banking/stockbroking and such. My mom said she received a signature over e-mail, but its just a .bmp image and I could just paste it into any e-mail, so its legal value seems compromised to me. Does anyone know more on the subject of what has legal value and what doesn't? Thx

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In simple english of what I have read on the subject in the past as long as both parties accept the electronic signature no matter what it is it is considered valid.  Everytime you sign up on a web site, shop online, or pay a bill on line you are using a mutually agreed upon electronic signature.  As for the qualiy/robustness through an e-mail is up to what you and the person/company want to agree upon.  It could be as simple as an agreement or disagreement in an e-mail replay to an encrypted code that you both have the key to for extra security.  Most of it will depend on what is at stake.

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I think what you are referring to is an E-signature using a digital certificate.  This also allows the emails to be encrypted.  E-sigs are protection against "non-repudiation", which basically means that you can't deny that you are who you say you are and such.  This protects your liability in the event that someone "spoofs" your email and does something illegal or unethical, especially in the work environment. 

For example, Lets say you got an official looking email from the company you work for asking you to change your password via a web link.  If the company you work for uses digital certificates to sign their emails, and this email that you get isn't signed, you know not to follow the link and that the email is a phishing attack.

As far as legality is concerned, someone could always take control of your computer and send out the emails using your digital cert., so it still might not hold up in court.

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