Why You Should Care about how Seriously your eSignature Provider Takes Cybersecurity

To increase productivity, digital records and connected devices have become the new normal for many companies. In recent years, the static form which requires a physical signature has been phased out in favor of a more automated signing process using eSignature platform services like those provided by SignNow.

Small businesses and huge industry leaders are turning to electronic signature platforms to reap the benefits of a faster and more secure signing process. More than 60% of documents uploaded to SignNow’s cloud storage are signed within one hour. Using eSignatures means never having to waste time looking for misplaced documents again. In addition to this, e-docs are a fraction of the cost of a physical form which requires time and money to print, ship, and have a signed copy returned. Having your business switch to an eSignature platform is the obvious alternative to using outdated and expensive physical documents.

What Are the Risks of eSignature technology?

In 2017 a serious data breach exposed the credit information of over 145 million clients of Equifax, the largest credit rating company in the United States.

While eSignature technology offers many benefits, understanding how to use these solutions in safe and secure ways is critical.

At SignNow, users are always required to provide identity and user authentication. Tamper evident software and complete audit trails are used to view document activity. Once filled out and submitted, a document is stored in your personal SignNow account. At this stage, only you have access to the document which you can either share, email, or print out from any internet connected device.

How Much Should a Company Invest in Cybersecurity?

Companies face different risks based on their size and the industry they’re involved in. IBM Security recommends that businesses should spend between 5 to 7 percent of their IT budget on cybersecurity. According to a recent survey by Ponemon Institute, American companies lose 15 million dollars a year due to cybercrime.

But What if Your Company is Just a Small Start-Up?

In 2016, CNBC reported that 6 in every 10 businesses experienced some form of cyberattack. In some cases, being a smaller business can make a company a more enticing target for cybercriminals. The retail company Target experienced a data breach that compromised 40 million credit cards of its customers in 2013. To gain access to this information, hackers used a smaller cleaning company that was associated with Target.

How Does SignNow Protect Clients from Cybersecurity Threats?

SignNow’s audit trail provides users with a complete overview of their document’s history, including when the signer viewed, signed, and sent the document back. You may also view a signer’s IP address as well as the date/time of all document activity. SignNow is SOC 2 Type II certified, making documents tamper-proof and unassailable by outsiders. SignNow documents can only be accessed by the sender or signer. Establishing these security channels has made SignNow a market leader in cybersecurity for electronically signed documents.

How Successful Businesses View Cybersecurity  

For any business, cyber security is essential for safety and growth. SignNow can trace much of its success to sparing no expense in providing several protective layers for strengthening its cybersecurity apparatus. This platform uses near real time replication to maintain multiple document storage locations. This means that your documents are always available. In the event of any security concern, SignNow has a complete disaster recovery plan which details exactly what steps need to be taken in the case of an emergency.

SignNow stores documents for 7 years or as long as is required by the customer. Our internal retention policy is to maintain business records in accordance with legal requirements. SignNow also creates and maintains detailed document histories which outlines who, when and where document activity took place. A document’s history is viewable within SignNow or can be attached to a PDF using the Download with History feature. All documents and data are encrypted while in transit using our state of the art encryption technology.

Try SignNow’s free trial to streamline your business workflow with the highest level of security.