Asseco SignErgy as Innovative Concept of Online Digital Signature Service on MAC & Linux OS

In the majority of existing implementations, where hardware PKI devices and X.509 certificates were used for digital signing, until recently Java applets were used to give the browser-based web application access to the resources installed and connected to the local computer operating system.

However, major web-browser producers have already stopped supporting the Java plugin (Chrome, Firefox, EDGE), and Oracle has announced to deprecate Java Applet support in Java 9.

To respond to this challenge, Asseco SEE experts have developed a new concept that successfully transforms the existing technology based on Java applets into a completely online digital signature service. The new concept is based on the use of Asseco SEE's Java native application called SignErgy, which comes bundled with ready-made integration Java scripts and the related documentation for easy integration and usage in online services.

SignErgy supports all modern web browsers, such as MS Edge, MS IE, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. It is also supported on other, most commonly used operating systems besides MS Windows - Mac OS and Linux OS.

The majority of Asseco SEE's customers have already successfully switched to the new concept, while others are in transition or planning to implement the new concept.

One of SignErgy’s key benefits is easy integration into online services. The TLS communication between a Web browser, online services and the SignErgy application is highly secure.

It offers an easy and safe way to change and validate client-side configuration parameters by a digitally signed server-side application parameter file and supports different vendors of PKI hardware devices by using their PKCS#11 interface. The source code and the necessary resources of the application are protected by obfuscation and code signing.

The concept also supports the XML Signature (XMLDSig) signing standard and digital signing of documents that do not leave the environment of online services in AdES/QES document formats (Advanced/Qualified Electronic Signature).

SignErgy can be configured as a "What You See Is What You Sign" service, and can be customized with customer's infrastructure keys and logo.

With the use of Asseco SEE's Validation Authority Service (VAS) for digital signature validation and the signer’s certificate status validation, the online service gets everything needed for the proper implementation of PKI technology to authenticate a user and, if used with Qualified certificates, to enable excellent online customer onboarding.