Businesses using digital signatures have saved 55%- 78.62% of their costs by shifting from physical to digital signatures. This shows how promising digital signatures can be for cost-saving if people use them.

While many businesses are now comfortable using digital signatures, so many others are still hesitant to migrate to digital signatures for seemingly legitimate reasons like security, cyberattacks, subscription costs, and more. However, most of these concerns are just myths and misconceptions, your company data is just as safe with a physical signature as a digital signature.

Let’s debunk popular misconceptions about digital signatures

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What Are Digital Signatures?

Digital signatures allow you to approve or dent electronic transactions, contracts, and legal documents. They use complex algorithms to form signatures that ensure the authenticity and integrity of the document. They are also difficult to forge and allow only the recipient to verify your identity to ensure that the document has not been altered.

How Do Digital Signatures Work?

A digital signature is not just a digital copy of your physical signature; it is a virtual fingerprint unique to each person signing a document. This means both you get an access code that shows you signed the document, while the person receiving the document also gets an access code that confirms the document was truly signed by you.

You sign the document and generate a private key only you know, and when the right receipt gets the document they open the document with a matching public key. If their access code doesn’t match yours, it means they are not the right recipient and they won’t be able to access the document, regardless of how many times they try. They also get banned from accessing the document if they exceed the number of document access attempts.

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Myth 1: Digital Signatures Have Poor Security

Digital signatures cannot be easily forged; they use complex algorithms and cryptographic methods to ensure data security and authenticity. Here is how they work:

• Asymmetric Encryption: When you sign and send the document, it is locked by the private key, and only the recipient with a public key that matches your private key can open the document. Think of it as having the access code to your friend’s house; you know the access code is because your friend told you and if you know the code, you can’t enter the house.
• Strong Encryption Algorithms: Digital signatures are encrypted with very secure cryptographic algorithms like RSA and DSA, which protect your document from brute-force attacks.
• Regulatory Standards: Digital signatures’ authenticity is enhanced by stringent regulations. These regulations ensure the solutions meet stringent security requirements such as ETSI standards and eIDAS standards.

Myth 2: Digital Signatures Are the Same as Electronic Signatures

Digital signatures offer significantly more security than e-signatures. Here is the difference:

• Digital Signatures: relies on cryptography to verify your identity and the document’s authenticity. This provides tamper-proof authentication, eliminating forgery attempts.
• Electronic Signatures: These are just digital versions of a signature (i.e., clicking “sign” or typing in a name). They don’t offer the same level of security as digital signatures.

Myth 3: Digital Signatures Are Complex and Difficult to Implement

Yes, the mentions of private and public keys seem like a long process, but they are not. Digital signatures are user-friendly, once you sign in to your digital signature tool and provide your signature, that’s it. The private key generation and confirmation are all done by the software,

You can also integrate your digital signature tool with client relationship management (CRM) tools such as your digital workspace to seamlessly gather digital signatures from clients as well as relevant team members.

Myth 4: Digital Signatures Are Only Valid in Certain Jurisdictions

Digital signatures are recognized globally. Frameworks such as the European eIDAS Regulation and UNCEC establish legal recognition of qualified digital signatures in Member States. These frameworks establish that digital signatures are as legally binding as traditional handwritten signatures.

Also, so many countries have signed agreements recognizing each other’s digital signature standards, further enhancing their global acceptance. So, whether you’re signing a contract with an international partner or sending documents abroad, digital signatures offer secure and legally valid authentication.

Myth 5: Digital Signatures Are Expensive

This is a great misconception, digital signature software offers multiple price points from individual plans to enterprise solutions. Also, these solutions offer other cost-effective features such as bulk signing, contract templates, secure document storage, audit trails, and more.

Digital signatures also help reduce companies’ carbon footprint by reducing courier costs and paper waste. According to Corp Magazine, US businesses alone spend $8 billion every year managing paper documents, migrating to digital signatures will significantly cut down this cost.

Myth 6: Digital Signatures Can Be Easily Forged

Unlike most crime films, digital signatures are impossible to forge because of their encryption. The algorithms used to generate digital signatures are highly complex and unique, so nobody can generate the same code twice or guess their way through.

You also get a warning when a wrong public key is used to access the document and there is a limited number of tries the recipient can make before they are banned from opening that document.

Myth 7: Digital Signatures Are Prone to Cyberattacks

Digital signatures protect your documents against cyber threats with strong encryption protocols. These digital signatures are protected by sophisticated encryption algorithms such as AES-256 that make it nearly impossible for an attacker to intercept or modify data from one end to the other (from you to the receiver)>

Digital signatures also use security protocols such as SSL encryption to ensure data integrity during transmission, protecting it from unauthorized access. You can also add an extra layer of security to digital signatures using two-factor authentication to further safeguard against unauthorized access to private keys.

Myth 8: Digital Signatures Are Not Legally Binding

The European Electronic Data Access Act (eIDAS) and the ESIGN Act in the United States make digital signatures legally binding just as binding as handwritten signatures. Also, numerous court cases have upheld the legal validity of digital signatures in various jurisdictions, solidifying their standing.

Myth 9: Only Large Enterprises Need Digital Signatures

You can use digital signatures regardless of your profession or business- freelancer, retail business,  large corporation, etc. This is why digital signature software offers different plans and pricing models to fit your industry and use cases.

Myth 10: You Need a Separate Digital Signature Device

Digital signatures are cloud-based: you don’t need to invest in any extra hardware. All you need is your PC, tablet, or smartphone and an account with a digital signature tool, and you can sign and verify documents whenever you want.

Myth 11: Digital Signatures Are Not Environmentally Friendly

Digital signatures are eco-friendly. They reduce your carbon footprint by eliminating the need for paper production, transportation, and storage. Since you are signing documents digitally, you will most likely store documents the same way, which reduces paper use and waste.

Myth 12: Digital Signatures Are Not Compatible with Existing Workflows

Most digital signature solutions such as Formplus allow you to seamlessly integrate with various document management systems for transfer, storage, and collaboration.

With Formplus Zapier integration you can easily integrate your digital signature into existing workflows, minimizing disruption. You don’t have to spend weeks migrating from one platform to the other; You are one click away from accessing your workflow tools.

Myth 13: You Need Stable Internet for Digital Signatures

It’s termed “digital signature”, it is only natural that most people assume that it will only work when there is an internet connection. However, digital signature companies understand that you can lose your internet connection, and provide offline signing to prevent it from disrupting your productivity and workflow.

Offline signing enables users to sign documents without being connected to the internet and automatically synchronizes the signature when the connection is restored. Since offline signatures are temporarily saved on the device before being synchronized to the cloud, the majority of digital signature software stores the document for offline signature and verification using digital certification.

Myth 14: Digital Signatures Are Vulnerable to Technological Obsolescence

Digital signature software are built on scalable frameworks for past and future upgrades. Most solutions ensure older signatures remain valid even with future upgrades, while present signatures are built with upgrade options to comply with evolving standards and protocols.

So, digital signatures are not going out of date anytime soon. They will keep getting upgraded to fit future advancements.

Myth 15: Digital Signatures Are Not Widely Adopted

As of Q3 2023, the e-signature global market is estimated to be $1.53 billion. This is because 50% of businesses moved to digital signature after the COVID-19 pandemic and have saved on average $28 per agreement.

Also, the global digital signature market is projected to reach $43.14 billion by 2030, which signifies wide adoption across multiple countries. This is because there has been increasingly rising adoption across major sectors such as finance, healthcare, and government for efficiency and security.

Conclusion

Digital signatures are way more secure than most people portray them to be. And they are not just secure, they also help you exchange information faster and save you money on physical document couriers.

We hope this guide will help you see the benefits of digital signatures and embrace them in your workflow. Ready to switch to highly efficient and secure digital signatures? Get started with Formplus!