“Our industry is about commitment and trust. The digital signature, in the highest quality class, has now become a common form for us to make binding decisions or to obtain them digitally.”

Dr. Christian Zwick | Partner

Binder Grösswang has been one of Austria’s leading law firms for 60 years and is based in Vienna and Innsbruck. More than 100 lawyers and a transaction volume of 50 billion euros speak for themselves. After the decision to integrate a digital signature platform was made, after a rigorous phase of evaluation, sproof emerged as the favorite.

“It is a very special honor that we were able to convince Binder Grösswang, as an established but above all innovative law firm, of sproof and gain their trust,” says Dr. Fabian Knirsch, founder and CTO of the company.

Binder Grösswang – especially the team around Dr. Christian Zwick – signs digitally when it is legally possible. “In principle, we always sign when the pen needs to be replaced. These are almost all documents in Austria, as the principle of freedom of form applies under civil law,” says Dr. Zwick.

For these documents, the digital signature is used, among other things:

• Powers
• Contracts of purchase
• Non-Disclosure Agreements
• Decisions

2 convincing reasons why lawyers rely on the digital signature

The legal profession has always been a constant part of every functioning society. Trust and good communication between lawyers and clients form the foundation of this. It may sound a little dogmatic; but: With regard to the advancing digitalization, the legal industry is certainly not a pioneer. This is probably because traditional techniques and workflows that have been established and proven for centuries do not want to be replaced.

But the “legal profession” has now also recognized the strengths of meaningful digitization for various reasons. Be it the digital act, instead of exuberant archives, or even experimenting with various digital “speech to text” applications that could relieve the secretariat in certain places or even replace it in the future, for the many paperwork.

In particular, an opportunity of digitization, which also holds great potential for the legal industry, is on the rise: the digital signature!

Declarations, resolutions and contracts – all these are documents that must be signed by one or more people. Even a document on which three people have to sign in analogue means a total of around 45 minutes: This includes printing in triplicate, sending documents by post or coordinating a joint appointment for the signature. This waste of resources is dispensable.

In the private sector, the digital signature has already established itself in Austria in the form of the “mobile phone signature”. For several years now, many Austrian citizens have been using this free state service.

However, “only” the digital signature alone is usually insufficient in the business environment. There is a lack of technical possibilities, a tool or a platform that can map the use cases and “signature runs” specific to an industry or company. An associated shared “dashboard” provides a good overview of important documents. This requires central administration of all users and rights and role management. This also has many advantages.

In many companies, regardless of size or industry, a digital signature platform is an integral part of many standard workflows. The legally recognized technology is already used in the legal sector, in the tax system, in the financial sector, but also by large internationally active top companies with strict IT guidelines and also in the public sector.

Instead of ink and paper: cryptographic encryption and digital proof of identity

The digital signature is an indispensable building block of digital transformation. Nevertheless, many doubt whether the digital signature is legally valid and thus legally compliant. However, digital signatures and their binding nature are precisely defined and regulated in the European Union. In 2006, the eIDAS Regulation (EU) 910/2014 (Electronic Identification and Authentication Services) established the regulations for Europe regarding the highest security and conformity of the digital signature. The regulation regulates the legal recognition of electronic proof of identity and authentication services, thus strengthening trust in electronic communication between companies and citizens and significantly facilitating cross-border services and business processes of all kinds.

There are three digital signature standards that have been precisely defined in terms of legal validity in the eIDAS Regulation: simple, advanced and qualified.

The signatures look almost the same on the surface, but the status of the signature and its binding nature are very different. Only the “qualified electronic signature”, also known as QES, is legally comparable to a signature (see Section 4 (1) of the Austrian Signature and Trust Services Act (SVG)).

Due to the highest level of conformity and security, many law firms only consider the qualified electronic signature. A digital signature that is equivalent to a traditional paper signature.

But how does the high level of security come about from a technical point of view? What is the high evidential value of the qualified electronic signature?

4 The Qualified Signature: No Mystery

Even though relevant trade media always strive to put the qualified electronic signature in the most complex and technical light possible, we at sproof have made it our mission to unravel the supposed “mystery” – in a nutshell.

As with many other electronic legal or banking transactions, you must be able to prove your own identity 100% securely. This is initially done via a short (approx. 10-minute video identification procedure), in which your personal data and also biometric data are checked by a state-recognized service (Trust Service Provider).

After that, you will be able to use a mobile phone app to additionally verify every digital signature you make. The mobile phone is therefore your second security factor in addition to your e-mail address, which you need anyway to sign and obtain signatures.

The signed documents themselves are digitally encrypted using cryptographic methods. Only the owners of a document, or those who have been invited to sign, can edit the document or just sign it. Each document is provided with a unique cryptographic key at all times, which is impossible for any person and any computer to see. The validity and evidentiary value of the document is also independent of the signature platform used, as the cryptographic key (or “hash value”) is embossed in the pdf file itself. Consequently, any printing and physical filing of the document is also not the purpose of the matter, since traceability expires when the document is printed.

To verify the validity of an electronic signature and compliance as described above, the signed (digital!) document must be checked with the national signature verification services, e.g. via the Austrian Communications Authority:
https://www.rtr.at/TKP/was_wir_tun/vertrauensdienste/Signatur/signaturpruefung/Pruefung.de.html
platforms such as sproof offer an integrated testing service as a platform itself.

In short: The qualified digital signature is 100% forgery-proof and legally valid. A signature made by hand is also 100% legally valid, but never 100% forgery-proof.

5 It doesn’t take much to get started with the qualified digital signature

Although digital signatures are technically demanding and require a special degree of responsibility from the manufacturer’s point of view, the signatures generated with them offer a high degree of commitment. However, a wide range of users, from lawyers to secretaries to clients, must be able to work easily, quickly and intuitively.

The technical complexity is completely hidden with sproof and simple and low-threshold access is created. Philipp Gernerth is responsible for UI and UX (User Interface and User Experience) at sproof.

“We are developing a modern, technically highly sophisticated product that offers the highest security and commitment guarantees. Nevertheless, it must be easy and intuitive to use. Otherwise, we will miss the mark,” explains Philipp Gernerth, who is responsible for UX (user experience) and UI (usability) at sproof, among other things.

From the user’s point of view, the qualified electronic signature essentially means the following:

• You have a document to be signed, which is a Word or PDF document. You load this into the signature software to sign it. The signature software can be found at https://sign.sproof.com . You can start at any time for free.
• A one-time identification is required for a qualified electronic signature. This means that you must identify yourself in a short video call (“Video-Ident-Procedure”) and show your (valid) passport or identity card. This identification is only required once and is then valid for five years or (if this occurs earlier) until the expiry of your identity document.
• In the course of identification, you install an app on your mobile phone or alternatively — if you cannot or do not want to install the app — you will later receive a one-time code by SMS.
• To sign a document, select the location of your digital signature and optionally upload an image of your handwritten signature. Now authorise the signature on your mobile phone via the app or enter the one-time code received via SMS. The image of your signature has no legal relevance here, but enables a common and familiar representation of the signature. The legally binding signature is applied in the background “invisibly” purely digitally.
  The document is now legally digitally signed. With sproof, a conversion to the PDF/A format customary or required by lawyers is also carried out. You, your clients or the court can check the conformity of the document and the electronic signature at any time, including at RTR’s state inspection service.

6 Sensitive data in safe hands

When using digital signature services, data protection plays a special role. This is particularly important for so-called “cloud software” (i.e. software that does not need to be installed, but can be used directly via the web browser and the Internet). This offers the advantage of being ready for immediate use without your own hardware or an IT project. In addition, the software can be accessed from anywhere, including mobile. Data transmission is always state-of-the-art and encrypted at the highest level of security.

“The cloud has been running since day one. Everything is serviced by sproof, complies with European data protection and is therefore also ideally suited for us lawyers.”

Dr. Christian Zwick
Binder Grösswang

In terms of data protection, on the one hand, the legal requirements in the sense of the GDPR must be met and, on the other hand, the highest level of security must be guaranteed from an IT security perspective. The signature software provider sproof guarantees both by storing and processing the data exclusively in data centers within the European Union and avoiding any US reference. A deletion concept, which is an integral part of the solution, as well as a contract data processing agreement based on the EU template, also guarantee the highest standard of data protection from a legal point of view.

Result

The advantages of the digital signature are obvious: it is fast, easy and, above all, 100% secure. More and more lawyers are recognizing this and benefiting from the digital signature in their work. A clear trend that will continue in the coming years.