In today’s hyper-connected world, many organisations are embracing the idea of paperless offices. So with the highest safeguard, authenticity, convenience and low cost, cloud based digital signature services became the right choice for businesses to elevate workflow efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Digital signatures allows you to check the authenticity and integrity of data, as well as preventing the signatory from being able to repudiate their involvement.

This technology allows signing processes and closing deals to be carried out on any device anytime and anywhere. According to the Government's MyDigital blueprint, digital signatures are to be implemented across the entire public sector by 2025. This implementation would be extremely beneficial to the Rakyat and businesses as one will no longer need to be physically present at any government department to conduct their business.

The recent Top in Tech episode aimed to raise awareness around the importance, applications and advancements of digital signatures and had Sea Chong Seak, Chief Technology Officer of SigningCloud, Lo Nyan Tjing, Chief Executive Officer of MSCTrustgate and Nagendran Perumal, Chief Technology Officer of Censof as panellist contributing to the discussion.

Did you know that there is a difference between Digital and Electronic signatures?

The differences between digital signatures and electronic signatures can often be confusing. An electronic signature is a blanket term for a broad grouping that includes digital signatures as a specific subset.

Lo noted that digital signatures are more secure and tamper-evident. It encrypts the document, provides a timestamp and permanently embeds the information in it. If a user tries to commit any changes in the document then the digital signature will be invalidated.

On the other hand, an electronic signature is similar to a digitized handwritten signature verified with the signer’s identity such as emails, corporate ID’s, transactions, and etc. An electronic signature is less secure since it does not have viable security features that can be used to secure it from being tampered with by other people without permission.

“Most of the projects and applications that utilize digital signature are initially initiated by the government sector such as Malaysia Government Public Key Infrastructure (GPKI), eCourts and Inland Revenue Board Of Malaysia (LHDN). But when the pandemic swept across the world, more companies began to be more open in exploring digital signatures”

“As Covid-19 is here to stay, companies in Malaysia should embrace digital signatures to maintain and optimize their business operations, costs, productivity and efficiency,” he elaborates.

Sea pointed out that the convenience of digital signatures inherently implies a faster turnaround time. Instead of involving multiple players, who will handle printing, signing, scanning and sending one side of the business transaction and the same set of actions on the other side, a digital signature authentication happens at the click of a button.

Plus, this type of signature has the same legal standing as a handwritten signature as long as it complies with the requirements of the specific regulation under which it was created. Naturally, it gives businesses the necessary agility, edge and helps to improve trust with their stakeholders.

“Malaysia has always been at the forefront in adopting technology. Based on the government's digital economy blueprint, 80% of all the government and public sector should be offering zero-counter operations and transactions via the internet within the 2 years timeframe. One of the strategies to achieve this objective is to adopt this technology,” Nagendran added.

Key Takeaways

“I hope both small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and other big organisations in Malaysia adopt and integrate digital signatures in their business as it not only ensures smooth and efficient workflow operations but it also provides legal recognition,” Sea concluded.

“MyDigital initiative is to transform Malaysia into a digitally driven nation. To achieve this initiative the government would implement more e-services in both government and private sectors. Therefore, businesses should embrace digital signatures in their e-services as it eases business operations and aligns together with the government's objective,” Lo said.

“Everyone embraces technology in their lives to make a specific task or way of life easier. Therefore, save time and make the signing process quicker by using digital signatures,” Nagen concluded.

Watch the replay of Top in Tech Episode 16 - Digital Signatures: Embracing New Practices here.