- Authentication: process to verify the identity of a user or electronic device. It is considered one of the three steps of the AAA Protocol (Authentication, Authorization and Audit). There are many types of authentication, for example, biometrics or double factor, although the best known may be the basic password.
- Certification Authority (CA): a trusted entity that can issue and revoke digital certificates to provide digital identities to users and electronic devices, or to generate a digital signature, which will subsequently be applied to electronic documents or emails.
- Digital certificate: a computer file that provides a digital identity to a person, organisation or electronic device. Recognised certification authorities issue them (CA). They are based on asymmetric cryptography and have a public key (available to everyone) and a private one (which is only in the hands of the owner). One of its applications is the digital signature.
- Cryptography: the art of returning an unintelligible message. Currently, and from a technological point of view, it is used to authenticate users, protect the information contained in a document or generate a digital signature. It can be symmetric, asymmetric or hybrid.
- eIDAS: (Regulation n° 910/2014 of the European Parliament and the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market). Regulation on digital signature and identity whose objective is to establish a common legal framework throughout the EU regarding electronic signatures, avoiding their repudiation, and thus contributing to the single digital market.
- ESIGN Act: Law on Electronic Signatures in Global and National Trade 2000. United States federal regulation that regulates the use of electronic signatures for commercial purposes, guaranteeing the legal validity of electronic contracts throughout the country.
- Biometric signature: electronic signature collected in a device enabled for this purpose, which associates a series of features (stroke pressure, speed, and so forth.) to the signer, to identify it.
- Digital signature: (not to be confused with a digitalized signature) is a type of electronic signature based on digital certificates, which can be applied to documents and contracts, emails and electronic invoices, among others. It encrypts the documents using an algorithm, and guarantees the identity of the signatory and the integrity of the content, avoiding possible risks such as fraud and repudiation.
- Digitalized signature: any rubber stamp or signature made by hand on a document, then scanned. It does not have legal validity or guarantees the identity of the signatory.
- Electronic signature: according to the eIDAS Regulation, “data in the electronic format attached to other electronic data or associated logically with them that the signer uses to sign”. Although it can be considered the electronic equivalent of a handmade signature, its degree of security and legal compliance varies depending on the technology on which it is based.
- Digital identity: the digital equivalent of identity in the real world, for people and electronic devices. As with an identification document, it is based on a series of attributes and characteristics associated with its carrier, only in this case they are electronic data. Digital identities can be generated through certificates, thus guaranteeing security and avoiding the risk of fraud.
- Legaltech: legal technology, which provides for legal services, among them the digital signature can be found.
- Paperless: movement arising in the framework of digital transformation that advocates reducing or even eliminating the use of paper in different environments, such as offices, with the aim of protecting the environment and reducing costs in organisations.
- UETA: Uniform Electronic Transactions Act 1999. Act signed by 47 states in the US to harmonize state laws on the validity of the electronic signature. Together with the ESIGN Act, it is part of the regulatory framework that regulates the electronic signature.
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