Last month in Australia, a scandal rocked the Australian Football League exposing the vulnerabilities of hand written signatures – and in turn, highlighting the role that electronic signatures (or e-signatures) have in authenticating documents.

It is alleged that Stephen Danks, a sports scientist at the heart of the scandal, forged the signature of pharmacist, Nima Alavi, and tampered with key documents that were submitted as evidence for a widely publicized anti-doping case. While the innocence of Danks is in question, one thing we can be certain of is: this alleged breach could have easily been prevented by the authentication processes that e-signatures provide.

^{Pharmacist Nima Alavi, who made the allegations against Stephen Danks. Photo credit: Yahoo TV}

While e-signatures are a convenient, time-saving method of signing documents, a more important element are their ability to protect signees from fraudulent practices via various methods. For instance, Nitro’s QuickSign feature gives you the option to set a security password which you will have to enter each time you intend to use your e-signature, allowing you to control where and when you make your mark.

To step up security even further, Nitro enables you to apply an e-signature with a digital ID (called ‘digital signature’) which becomes invalid in the event the signed document is altered post-signing. As with the Stephen Danks’ case, if digital signatures were implemented in the creation of the contested documents, it would have saved many parties a headache.

As organizations continue to transform digitally, it is ever more important to carefully consider placing digital document policies, including secure e-signing options that will serve to protect the company and its employees.

Interested in finding out more about e-signatures? Register for our upcoming whitepaper, Beyond the Dotted Line.