Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists . Some deals are still done with a signature on the dotted line, even with the advent of the Net. Take leases for heavy machinery or office furniture. San Francisco-based LeaseExchange can process a rental request in less than a minute, but it can take days to execute the leases that is, getting everyone to sign the paperwork. He's eager to see whether authentication technologies will speed things up without harming customer relationships.
Relief is on the way, although it's likely to present a host of new complexities.
This expansive federal legislation considers facsimiles of an original signature and recorded agreements over the telephone as forms of electronic signatures. However, it doesn't dictate whether an electronic signature needs to be secured, nor does it specify a type of technology. To further complicate matters, the law also lets each state regulate its own authentication technology. The easiest and least expensive kind of electronic signature is an unsecured fax, but businesses aren't likely to rely on them since they can be an open invitation for fraud. Digital signatures the online equivalent of a wax seal on an envelope offer a basic level of security for transmitting a signature over a public network, such as the Internet.