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- Usability: ease-of-use consistent with typical commercial online transactions such as consumer banking or personal investor securities trading; portable e-signature capability, not tied to a particular Internet access device or particular type of access device (rules out a signature digitizing pad, fingerprint reader, etc.)
- Ease of Implementation: minimize modifications to agency business rules or technology infrastructure
- Affordability: cost appropriate for business value delivered
- Risk Mitigation: accountability appropriate to mitigate business risk - which is a function of confidence in the original identity assertion (are you sure enough that you have identified a specific individual?), the chain of custody of the identity credentials (did the registrant maintain sole custody of the secret?), the integrity of the signed document (is the document in evidence unaltered from when it was signed?), and the legal framework of the e-signature (is the signature legally binding?).
Representative Design Alternatives
As described in the design of e-signature systems, it can be useful to decompose these systems into component parts, each of which present clear choices among technical alternatives. (Like putting together a five-course meal from an a la-carte menu.) The resulting composite design can then be mapped back to our requirements. The table below illustrates this decomposition and analysis for some theoretical and existing e-signature systems.
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