A Conceptual Model for a Cloud-Based Digital Signing Service

Today, organizations around the world are using less and less paper documents that have handwritten signatures accompanied by stamps to prove their authenticity and are increasingly turning to digital signatures. Initially, the digital signature could be applied to documents by means of a hardware token, containing the cryptographic material (the private key and the associated digital certificate) together with the software for applying the digital signature. Lately, to further ease the process of applying the digital signature, the remote signature is gaining momentum. This paper outlines the advantages of using digital signature as a cloud-based service, and the path taken to achieve an experimental prototype for the digital signature service in the cloud.