Digital signature pursuant to the German Signature Act (SigG)

Using the bc:sign components of the business components (bc) framework from Tembit Software GmbH, documents can be signed electronically in accordance with the requirements of the German Signature Act. Within the meaning of this legislation the following types of digital signature can be provided:

• the (simple) electronic signature
• the advanced electronic signature
• the qualified electronic signature.

Owing to the fact that the simple electronic signature has no legally binding effect, the two other types of signature are essentially used.

The advanced electronic signature

The advanced electronic signature generated using bc:sign can be used, for example, to sign orders during the course of business with banks. In this respect, the plug-in complies with the requirements of the A003 and A004 standard of the Central Credit Committee (Zentraler Kreditausschuss – ZKA). This signature proves that

• the signature is actually from the person signing;
• the person signing can be clearly identified by the signature (the key);
• the signature was made using means available only to the person signing (e.g. a smart card), and
• the files signed were not altered retrospectively.

bc:sign guarantees the satisfaction of these requirements by means of defined coding procedures, the support of smart card readers and the creation of hash values which rule out the subsequent alteration to the signed document.

This signature is realised on the client side by two applets: one to generate the key pairs and one to control the storage medium private key (smartcard reader or diskette), to create the hash value and enter a password. The hash value is signed so that if the document were to be altered the new hash value would no longer agree with the original signed hash value.

The qualified electronic signature

A qualified electronic signature is required to send electronic invoices, for example. Prior tax can be deducted vis-à-vis the tax office using this form of digital signature alone. For this purpose the private key must be created by a state-recognised certification body.

A “safe” card reader (i.e. a reader of class 3) is additionally prescribed here which contains the coding algorithm itself. As a result the private key cannot be read out and transferred to the PC.

After signing with bc:sign, the documents (e.g. invoices) are sent via an integrated e-mail gateway in S/MIME format so that the user obtains an electronically signed document entitling him to make a prior tax deduction.

Scope of bc:sign

bc:sign is a plug-in for existing IT infrastructures (IBM WebSphere, Bea WebLogic, JBoss, Inubit IS etc.) with the following properties:

• Electronic signature in browser via a Java applet
• Compatible with commercially available card readers
• Can be supplied in a complete package with certified card readers
• Supports the advanced and the qualified digital signature
• Generates key pairs for the advanced digital signature
• Generates S/MIME e-mails
• Can be integrated in application/integration servers
• Option to sign several documents with one signing procedure (mass signature).