eIDAS Case Study - EuroCert

Remote Qualified Electronic Signatures & Seals

EuroCert in Poland has extended its Qualified Trust Services with a remote Qualified Electronic Signature platform, so customers across the EU can conduct all their business entirely online with the highest security assurances, privacy and in full compliance with the eIDAS regulation.  

Full compliance with the eIDAS regulation

By adding remote Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) to their service offering, Eurocert’s clients, from any EU country, can now complete the entire customer journey online, from registration to signing contracts, thereby increasing customer conversion rates and efficiency of digital businesses while also reducing CO1 emissions. 

During the process of choosing the right technology suppliers, EuroCert identified Cryptomathic and Esysco as the most capable providers to deliver a fully integrated remote QES platform. Cryptomathic provides the Common Criteria Protection Profile EAL 4+ PP 419 241-2 certified QES server technology, whereas Esysco has delivered customization and integration services along with local support & maintenace. 

 

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"Cryptomathic is the company with longest experience in Digital  Signing and we are proud to enhance our offering with a Qualified Electronic Signature service based on their Signer technology. Their partnership with Esysco has delivered a seamless integration process and their support teams are outstanding in providing immediate and expert advice to any challenges we faced during implementation"


Łukasz Konikiewicz ,

CEO at EuroCert

1650373401841

EuroCert

EuroCert Ltd. is a leading qualified trust service provider (QTSP), founded in 2012 in Poland. Its core activities focus on digital security services and software, aimed at delivering and enforcing digital trust between parties. These services include personal identification, certificate issuance, strong authentication, electronic signatures and time stamping - to enable secure electronic commerce and to meet the future security and regulatory requirements for both the public and private sectors.

With extensive experience in delivering market-leading digital trust services, EuroCert facilitates and protects a broad range of sensitive and confidential electronic transactions.

In July 2021 EuroCert launched its eIDAS certified remote qualified electronic signature service, which enables residents and organizations across the EU to securely manage agreements and to legally sign and certify electronic documents. The service was launched due to growing market demand from organizations and individuals demanding high security, while avoiding impairment of user experience and, at the same time, cutting costs of paper-based processes.

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Qualified Electronic Signature Platform

In order to make the service a success, EuroCert must comply with the eIDAS legal and technical framework of remote QES through the combination of public key infrastructure (PKI) and two-factor authentication (2FA). EuroCert approached Cryptomathic to solve the challenge of deploying the certified remote QES technology while limiting costs and complexity.

The remote QES service combines the highest level of security and legal assurance in the most convenient and portable package, allowing users to authenticate themselves with a choice of 2FA mechanisms to securely access online applications and sign legally significant documents at any time and from anywhere. 

The enhanced trust services delivered by Eurocert enable its clients to significantly reduce complexity and high costs that are traditionally associated with paper based processes of signing agreements of any kind between different parties and legal entities. The platform has also helped organizations and individual users reduce time consuming processes, costs of document handling, and environmental impacts by going paperless, through the provision of electronic signatures on relevant exchanges.

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KEY REQUIREMENTS

For offering QES services, EuroCert had stringent requirements towards a robust implementation and flexible support for different customer segments. 

 

Mobility and user convenience

Convenience is key to ensure best user acceptance. The e-Signing service needed to support different applications and meet specific customer needs. It must provide excellent, fast and simple functionality on a variety of devices (mobile, tablet, laptop, etc.) and browsers. This allows users to easily sign documents anytime, anywhere with no additional signing hardware needed for the end-users.

Regulatory compliance - eIDAS

The central requirement for digitalizing contract signing is to maintain the same level of trust and legal certainly as there is with handwritten signatures. The e-signature solution therefore needed to be QES certified as per the EU regulation (eIDAS).

Non-repudiation and What You See Is What
You Sign

It is imperative that neither the consumer nor the business can deny the validity of documents that are signed digitally. Achieving strong non-repudiation requires a robust security design and logging capabilities, while the technology must protect against attacks to ensure that a user can only sign authentic documents.

 

Low cost of ownership and sustainability

 
 

Delivering a hardware-less signing solution helps to address critical business requirements:

  • Reducing the total cost of ownership and offering a competitive and commercially attractive contract signing service

  • Supporting high conversion rates: convert opportunities quickly by signing agreements instantly

  • Reducing the carbon footprint significantly with no need to print, ship or archive paper documents

SOLUTION OVERVIEW


The most comprehensive solution to match Eurocert’s requirements came in the form of the partnership between Cryptomathic and Esysco.
The technology components provided for a qualified signing service are based on Cryptomathic Signer and the Signature Activation Module (SAM), the remote signature server solution which provides the qualified signature generation. ESYSCO provided integration and customization services with for the complete solution.

 

 

Cryptomathic Signer, Authenticator & SAM

Cryptomathic Signer is a CC EAL 4+ certified remote signature solution, offering a secure, easy-to-use and cost-effective signing service. Signer is the foundation of the signature generation and provides a unique signature experience where PKI complexity is removed from the end-user.

Cryptomathic Signer incorporates both the Server Signing Application and the Qualified Signature Creation Device. The complete solution implements Cryptomathic Signer RA, What You See Is What You Sign (WYSIWYS) and Authenticator components. A CC EAL4+ certified hardware security module is protecting the user´s private keys and ensures that sensitive operations ar executed in a tamper protected environment.

 

Signer delivers the following advantages for the remote signature service:

  • A unique and consistent signature experience for all channels, including web portals, desktop applications, and mobile platforms.
  • PKI is managed centrally and is invisible to the end user
  • Certified according to eIDAS standards for the creation of Qualified Electronic Signatures
  • Uses strong 2-factor authentication for highest security
  • Provides non-repudiation, authenticity and integrity of signed data

Esysco deliverables 

Esysco is a leading systems integrator and application development company for eIDAS trust services. As a long-lasting partner of Cryptomathic, Esysco was delivering the solution architecture design, implementation and integration with Eurocert’s back-end systems.
The 4-tier deployment, a must have design model for all Qualified Trust Service Providers, was successfully delivered on time and budget.

The four-tier architecture has the advantages of high reuse, strong scalability, low coupling and highest efficiency.

Business and client benefits 

Customers of Eurocert are generally businesses which expect the highest assurance when signing agreements and contracts. These are usually banks, insurance companies and various other organisations, where documents or contracts must comply with national and international laws on identification and signatures for proof of explicit constent.

Eurocert enables the digital transformation of such use cases, and the Qualified Electronic Signature service is an essential component for achieving the digital strategy. All stakeholders benefit from:

Increased efficiency: business stakeholders can offer an end-to end digital experience where Eurocert provides the trust anchor for enhanced security, user confidence and legal value. This saves time, reduces operational expenditures and increases conversion rates when offering new services.

Improved usability: user acceptance starts with convenient usability. Eurocert now offers a solution that works on a 24*7 basis with any device and without downloads or local installations.

Reduced carbon footprint: electronic signatures are the preferred alternative to paper based processes and are designed for minimizing emissions, waste and further environmental. 

CONCLUSION

With selecting Cryptomathic and Esysco as key suppliers for its QES platform, Eurocert has enhanced its service portfolio with an eIDAS certified signature service, allowing its clients and business partners to leverage a signature solution that offers the same probative value as a handwritten signature.

Deployed as a cost-effective service, the solution offers an excellent user experience integrated in business workflows for an end-to-end digital experience to ensure a high conversion rate. It meets the highest standards in terms of data protection, security and non-repudiation, thanks to Cryptomathic’s continuous innovation in remote server signing and the “What You See Is What Is What You Sign” technology. 

 

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EuroCert - a leading European Qualified Trust Service Provider - chooses the most popular eIDAS certified Remote Signing Platform from Cryptomathic for its online qualified digital signing services.