Digital sealing means applying an e-Seal, intended for legal entities, to a document. The service is provided in Estonia by SK ID Solutions AS.
Since the eIDAS Regulation entered into force on 1 July 2016, SK has been included in the Trusted List as a qualified trust service provider for qualified e-Seal certificates.
An e-Seal confirms that electronically transmitted documents or other information genuinely originate from the organisation that sent them. It provides assurance that the organisation is associated with the specific digital document and that the document has not been altered in the meantime.
An e-Seal is not a digital signature: only a natural person can provide a digital signature, and only a digital signature has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature. Since an e-Seal is created using the same technology and container format as a digital signature, the DigiDoc4 application displays e-Seals in the list of signatures.
An e-Seal can be used either together with a digital signature or on its own. When an e-Seal and a digital signature are used together, the digital signature confirms the intent of the person who signed the document, while the e-Seal confirms the document’s association with the organisation and the integrity of the document.
SK issues e-Seal certificates both on a cryptographic USB token and for an HSM (Hardware Security Module) certified according to FIPS 140-2 or Common Criteria.
For more information about e-Seals, see the SK website: e-Seal service.
Two methods of digital stamping:
Using a crypto-stick with DigiDoc4
Signing and encryption with a digital stamp/crypto-stick in DigiDoc4 is suitable for signing individual documents.
- Digital stamp use instructions
- suitable for cases that do not involve mass signing because the user must enter the crypto-stick’s PIN upon each instance of stamping.
Digital stamping with DigiDoc4j utility program (for mass signing)
- More information on configuring and using the the utility (in English).
- DigiDoc4j-util version information.
- Suitable for mass signing. The user does not have to enter the crypto-stick’s PIN upon signing each document, as this can be stored in the script by using the DigiDoc4j utility program.
Additional information on DigiDoc4 or DigiDoc4j can be obtained at [email protected].