First of all, in order to understand the concepts behind an e-notary it is
necessary to understand the concept and definition of a
notary itself, what tasks it provides and how it provides
them.
What is a notary?
Simple and short definition:
Notary - someone legally empowered to witness signatures and certify a
document's validity and to take depositions.
By DGRN (Direcção-Geral dos Registos e do Notariado - Ministério da Justiça)
“ Função notarial
A função notarial destina-se a dar forma legal e conferir fé pública aos actos jurídicos
extrajudiciais.
Compete ao Notário redigir o instrumento público conforme a vontade das partes, a qual
deve indagar, interpretar e adequar ao ordenamento jurídico, esclarecendo-as do seu
valor e alcance.
A intervenção do Notário abrange não só actos jurídicos mas também numerosos
factos e actos, que se reflectem numa variedade de documentos, e só pode dár-se por
vontade das partes, com o acordo de todos os interessados. Desde que o acordo exista, a
função do Notário abrange quer documentos particulares com reconhecimento notarial
quer documentos autênticos, aos quais o Notário para além de dar forma legal, dá fé
pública e confere autenticidade.”
Notary Services
A notary also provides his clients a judicial support service. So this entire
service cannot be completely satisfied by an e-notary because that should be the
lawyer’s duty. But it can help providing an environment to establish the agreement, in
particular, it could add features such as a vote system to define if some clause passes or
it doesn’t.
An introduction to Digital Signature
It is necessary to understand several digital signature concepts in order to realize the
benefits of an e-notary. Beginning with signatures in general, it is recognized that a
manuscript signature has served the purposes of:
• Providing evidence to the maker of a document.
• Expressing the signatory's approval of the content of the document or the
intention that the document should have legal effect.
• Calling to the attention of the signatory the significance of the act of signing,
and therefore helping prevent the signatory from entering into commitments
without due consideration of what he or she is doing.
Digital signature technology can perform the same functions of a manuscript
signature, and can produce evidence of the integrity of a signed electronic document
that is more reliable. Increased reliability comes not only from being able to prove that
the person who purports to be the signatory has signed the electronic document, but also
that the content of the electronic document is what the signatory signed.
Digital Signatures Authentication
User
Every user must have a Public
Key (PBK) and a Private Key(PRK). The
PBK is available to everyone and the
PRK is restricted to is owner.
Software
Public Key
Private Key
Digital Signature Creation
To create a document, the user’s software can initially compile the message in a
code(message digest) by a process called “hashing”(by this code is impossible to get the
original data). Encrypting the message digest with the Private Key of the sender and we
have the digital signature.
msg digest
(Digital Signature)
Now he can append the Digital Signature with the document himself. So this
new message is sent to the proper receiver.
In the opposite side the receiver can decrypt the signature using the public key of
the sender. If the result is positive this means that it was the sender (a known person)
that sends the message.
Sender PBK
The message digest can be resolved to his true form(hashing the document) with
sure that the signed data has not been changed
Is the sender who I think?
How can ensure that a message was not modified in transit? Or that the public
key of the sender was not manipulated?
In order to reach that goal we need to have a certificate authority that allows
the creation of a digital certificate to the sender. This allows the receiver to check the
sender’s public key and that the content of the message was created by the proper owner
that holds the corresponding private key.
User info: Name
Department
......
Certificate
authority
center
Digital
Certificate
User Public Key
Now everybody that receives messages from the sender can check his
authenticity by the trusted certificated created by the CA. The regent of the CA
commands the certificates authority and expiration time….
The next phase of the work is going to focus in how we can implement this system
giving a first approach to the implementation and the proper work tools.
If you want to know the next episodes try this link:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/security/
For further information consult:
• Notary
http://www.dgrn.mj.pt/notariado/info_not.asp
•
Digital Signatures
http://www.youdzone.com/signature.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_key_algorithm
•
Electronic Notary and Digital Signature authentication
http://www.freshpatents.com/Electronic-notary-system-andmethod-for-long-term-digital-signature-authenticationdt20050609ptan20050125656.php?type=description
P1, Task 3- Digital signatures and e-notary
Luís Almeida nº 21564
Tiago Santos nº 21736