McAfee and Adobe today announced their global strategic partnership across enterprise and consumer businesses. For enterprises, the companies are developing an integrated solution to expand data protection across the enterprise using data loss prevention and rights management technologies. For consumers, McAfee's free diagnostic tool, McAfee Security Scan, is available as an optional download to customers when installing Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash Player.

McAfee is bundling Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management with McAfee DLP (Data Loss Prevention), so organizations can automate the discovery and protection of critical information assets. This integration lowers the complexity and cost of data protection without the need to change the way users go about their daily business. The result is that more sensitive data is proactively protected based on corporate governance and information assurance policies, but not at the expense of slowing the necessary information exchange inside and outside the firewall.

The combination of these technologies provides an additional persistent protection mechanism for new and existing McAfee DLP customers who have classified content, intellectual property and regulatory compliance information on laptops and desktops. Once sensitive data is identified by DLP, LiveCycle Rights Management instantly applies an enforcement policy based on the content of the document to subsequently restrict who can view the content and what they can do with it. This powerful combination ensures sensitive information is protected at all times (and all places), while allowing external users such as partners, suppliers, or customers to gain access and collaborate on sensitive information as needed. If the protected content is accidentally or maliciously forwarded to or accessed by unauthorized recipients, the content is not viewable.

Adobe is also sponsoring McAfee's upcoming annual security conference, Focus 09, taking place October 6-9 at the Palazzo in Las Vegas. At 4:30pm on the first day of the conference, the companies are holding a conference session, Adobe and McAfee: Securing Data Always on the Move, to demonstrate the integration and provide additional product details. Event registration is available here.

We are pleased to have McAfee join our growing information security ecosystem. Additional details and demonstrations will be posted on this blog soon.

Posted by John Landwehr at 9:01 PM | Permalink

Building on the delivery of the PDF format to the International Standards Organization (ISO) as ISO 32000-1, Adobe has been collaborating with standards bodies around the world to make it easier for companies, organizations and individuals to leverage the ubiquity of PDF to make business processes quicker, easier and more reliable.  However, the rush to go paperless has often fallen short of its true potential because signing a document oftentimes brings business critical processes crashing to a halt, requiring users to print out the previously electronic document in order to apply their nom de plume with an ancient writing implement.  Electronic signatures are obviously the solution, but there’s still the question of interoperability and the use of electronically signed documents within certain legal frameworks, such as the European Union (EU).  With last week’s announcement of an ETSI open standard for PDF digital signatures, that question can now be answered.

ETSI/ESI Technical Standard (TS) 102 778, better known as PAdES (pronounced with either a long or short a), documents how the digital signature format described in ISO 32000-1 meets the needs of the 1999 EU Signature Directive (see previous blog entry), and then goes on to describe how that format can be expanded to take advantage of certain capabilities such as long-term document validation, where digital signatures placed on documents today can be validated five, ten and even 50 years later.  (The standard can be downloaded free of charge from the ETSI website at http://pda.etsi.org/pda/.)

While the digital signature technology built into Adobe Acrobat, Reader and LiveCycle ES is described and included in ISO 32000-1, and in turn based on a broad spectrum of industry and international standards, there has been debate about how PDF digital signatures fit into the European Union’s concept of an Advanced Electronic Signature (AdES), as described in the Directive. PAdES ends those debates.

The long and the short of it? Organizations doing business in the European Union that may have hesitated about settling on PDF as a replacement for their paper processes now must consider reevaluating these solutions as viable and credible alternatives. Not only is PDF a ubiquitous and open document format, PDF digital signatures are non-proprietary, standardized, and now, when used properly, recognized as an Advanced Electronic Signature format, just like XAdES and CAdES. PDF digital signatures help make organizations more agile and flexible in the face of constantly changing business requirements. PDF digital signatures can be applied directly to the document itself and can even be displayed on the document just like wet ink signatures. Moreover, PDF digital signatures are technically integrated into the document itself, meaning you only need one software application to both view the document and validate the electronic signature.

Another bonus? You can use Acrobat and Reader 9 (as well as LiveCycle Digital Signatures ES) today to create and validate digital signatures that meet both the PAdES standard and the EU Directive. Click here to download a document that walks you through setting up Acrobat and Reader 9 to produce and consume PAdES Part 2-compatible digital signatures. A document covering LiveCycle Digital Signatures ES is forthcoming.

Adobe has collaborated with key players in the European standards field to develop a white paper that details the importance of developing open standards for interoperable electronic signatures and trust. The paper describes not only PAdES, but also other ETSI advanced electronic signature profiles such as CAdES and XAdES, and explains how they each fit into the discussion. The white paper, “The AdES Family of Standards: CAdES, XAdES and PAdES -- Implementation Guidance for Using Electronic Signatures in the European Union,” can be downloaded here.

For more information about how digital signatures and PDF can lower costs and speed up workflows, check out the links below:

• E-invoicing Made E-asy - Security Matters blog entry on e-invoicing and how PDF and LiveCycle can help.
• “Applying best practices for secure, automated electronic invoicing.” - White paper
• Security Matters blog entries on electronic signatures
• Adobe Security Solutions home

 

Tags:electronic signature,digital signature,digital certificate,PADES,XADES,CADES,CMS,PDF,Acrobat,Reader,ISO,ETSI,standards,format,LTV,long-term validation

Posted by John B Harris at 12:29 PM | Permalink

Canon announced today their imageRUNNER Advance Series to seamlessly bridge the distance between user and multifunction printer (MFP). These models have a tighter collaboration with Adobe technologies, by offering the ability to print and scan into a variety of Adobe PDF formats and integration with Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management ES to bring secure collaboration to PDF documents.

Integration with LiveCycle Rights Management is provided directly on the imageRUNNER ADVANCE control panel to easily select document security policies that persistent protect the electronic document after it is scanned on the device.

Posted by John Landwehr at 7:29 AM | Permalink

For the first time in history, the Honorable John M. Facciola, Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, signed a judicial order, not with paper and pen, but with a digital signature!  Press release here.

 

Judge Facciola viewing his just-digitally signed order in Adobe Acrobat.  Courtesy National Notary Association (NNA). 

Talk about setting precedent--while electronic filing has been required for some time, orders are typically printed out, signed, and then re-scanned into systems for filing.  Not until now has there been such a vote of confidence in the legal significance and weight of a digital signature.  By keeping the generation, signing and filing of the order completely electronic, the process is made much more efficient, potentially driving costs down and making the court’s systems work more effectively.  This is the latest example of organizations understanding not only the integrity and authenticity benefits of digital signatures, but the resource savings also.  Remember, it’s not so much the signature event that consumes time and money--it’s the processes around it.

A fully electronic filing system - that includes electronic signatures - makes sense for America's courts, Facciola said. "This is the next logical development in the transition from paper to electronic filing," Facciola continued. "Implementing electronic signatures will keep the court's processes consistent and contemporary with the actual practices of the society the court serves. We can hope that it will be universally accepted by all those who have to rely on the contents of an electronic document that is in the court's electronic filing system."

A consortium of companies and organizations collaborated with the US District Court to make this happen, including several members of Adobe's Security Partner Community. The National Notary Association provided identification and authentication (I&A) duties and was the lead on this project, using their Trusted Enrollment Agent program. SAIC manages the NNA's credentialing service and was the lead orchestrator of the project. The judge's medium assurance, Federal Bridge cross-certified signing credential was provided by VeriSign, and trusted by Adobe's new Approved Trust List (AATL) program. The signing credential, in turn, was protected by a USB token provided by SafeNet, and the trusted timestamp associated with the signature provided by ChosenSecurity in their capacity as an automatically trusted Certified Document Services Provider. Finally, the actual PDF order was signed in Adobe Acrobat 9.1.

 

Courtesy SAIC

 

From left to right: Bill Anderson (NNA), Jacques Francoeur (SAIC), Ed Chase (Adobe), Magistrate Facciola, Nick Blend (US District Courts), Anton Le (US District Courts), Elaine Wright (NNA - Trusted Enrollment Agent™). Courtesy NNA.

"This significant milestone reaffirms that digital signatures offer greater assurances than traditionally signed documents, as they meet higher authentication standards and are protected throughout the document lifecycle," said John Landwehr, director of Security Solutions and Strategy, Adobe. "Signers and recipients alike can easily and confidently validate signatures using the free Adobe Reader deployed on millions of desktops around the world. As a result, documents can be processed more quickly and more securely, in a cost-effective manner."

Click here to see a signed judicial memo from Judge Facciola.  The document should automatically validate (with a green checkmark) if you are opening the document in Adobe Reader or Acrobat 9.x and above.  If not, be sure to check out the Adobe Approved Trust List FAQ here.

For more information about digital signatures in Adobe products and our Security Partner Community, please visit the following links:

• Adobe Security Solutions home
• Adobe Security Partner Community
• Adobe Approved Trust List (AATL)
• Certified Document Services (CDS)

Tags:digital signature,judicial order,partner,electronic signature,precedent,PDF,reference,AATL,CDS,electronic filing,judge,facciola

Posted by John B Harris at 8:51 AM | Permalink

Recently, Adobe launched its C2A (Click-to-Accept) service, providing partners and customers with the ability to electronically sign certain Adobe agreements without a lengthy approval and review process.  And what’s more, not only was it developed with the cross-functional support of product, information technology and legal teams within Adobe, it’s also based on off-the-shelf Adobe server and client products, including Adobe LiveCycle® ES, Flash, and Adobe Reader®.  We’ve talked in this blog about Adobe’s capabilities to support a wide range of electronic signatures within a single workflow, and here’s a clear example of that in production right here at Adobe.

When Adobe personnel need to send one of these agreements out for execution, they navigate to the Adobe Intranet and access LiveCycle Workspace ES to initiate the process.

They walk through a series of screens (Form Guides) to add information about the recipient.

When complete, this information (name, address, etc) is added to the agreement automatically by LiveCycle Forms ES, and an email sent to the recipient letting her know an agreement is ready for her signature.

Within that email, the recipient clicks on a link which brings her to Adobe.com. The recipient enters her AdobeID and password.

The recipient is presented with the PDF version of the document in her browser and is given two options to either click “I Agree” or “I Do Not Agree” with the terms of the agreement.

If the recipient chooses Agree, the recipient is thanked, and LiveCycle, in the background, appends a page to the end of the document with details about the recipient and Adobe, as well as a paragraph describing the acceptance of the agreement by the recipient. The document is also certified by LiveCycle Digital Signatures ES to lock down the contents of the document for integrity and archiving purposes.

The finalized document is then delivered into Adobe’s contract management system and a copy also emailed to the recipient.

 

 

Alternatively, depending on the type of agreement, the recipient may be sent a link by her Adobe representative to the Adobe.com site where she will be prompted to authenticate and fill-in her specific information. Upon completion, the document is rendered, complete with her information, and the recipient can then execute the contract as described above.

Click here to see a copy of a sample non-disclosure agreement processed through the C2A system.

While only three North American agreements are currently covered by C2A, others may go live as the system matures.

For more information about how you can leverage Adobe’s products, including LiveCycle ES, to optimize and accelerate signature and approval workflows within your organization and support a wide range of electronic signature types for legal coverage worldwide, be sure to check out the resources below and/or contact your local Adobe representative. (Also be sure to read other past entries in this blog on signatures - here.)

• Adobe Solution Accelerators - Used in the creation of the C2A project, these Solution Accelerators provide jumping off points for enterprise deployment with LiveCycle ES.
• Solution Accelerator Blog
• LiveCycle ES - Adobe LiveCycle® ES (Enterprise Suite) software is an integrated server solution that blends data capture, information assurance, document output, process management, and content services to help you create and deliver rich and engaging applications that reduce paperwork, accelerate decision-making, and help ensure regulatory compliance.

Tags:electronic signatures,reference,click-thru signature,click-thru,click-through,Adobe,certification signature,certify

Posted by John B Harris at 12:46 PM | Permalink