In the physical world signing invoices by hand is not really considered necessary. This is because over the
years a certain amount of trust has built up between businesses and the postal delivery network, both locally
and globally. Yet the truth of the matter is that this ‘trusted network’ is not as secure as we would all like to
believe. Practically anyone can intercept and tamper with a postal invoice or send a fraudulent invoice from
a company that does not really exist.

At present the situation in the electronic world is quite similar. Many people have now adopted sending
financial data electronically, such as by email attachment, but are unaware of the potential security risks.
Sending documents electronically without taking the proper security precautions is the electronic equivalent
of sending your invoice on a postcard.

When sending a document, such as an invoice by email:

1. There is no way of validating that the invoice has not been tampered with en-route
2. There is no way of verifying that the data is from who you think it is from

Currently the most secure and reliable way of protecting and authenticating e-documents sent electronically
over the Internet is by using the digital equivalent of a hand-written signature. This is called a Digital
Signature. Service providers such as Accountis use Digital Signatures to ensure that all electronic
documents, including invoices and purchase orders, are safe from the moment they are sent to when they are
viewed, paid and finally stored. The complex mathematical encryption techniques behind how Digital
Signatures work are too lengthy to discuss in this article. However what we can do is concentrate more on
the benefits that Digital Signatures can offer us and how they can be employed to protect your company’s
most important financial data.