How Artificial Intelligence Helps Stop Digital Signature Forgery

Nowadays, one cannot deny the prominence of paperless transactions, including the signing of documents. With the advent of electronic signatures, there's been a spate of cybercrime, and the forgery of digital signatures has become one serious crime of which companies should be aware. However, it's also safe to say it's possible to counter the threats of forgery, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). 

What Is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is a division of computer science that involves building machines and computer systems which perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. In other words, AI is the simulation of human intelligence by machines. 

What Are Digital Signatures? 

Important company or organizational documents have always been made authentic by a signature. With the advancement in technology, signatures could now be added to electronic documents, digitalized into e-signatures or digital signatures. Platforms like jSign.com and their contemporaries have made the creation of digital signatures easier than you may think.

A digital signature is used to verify online messages and documents and can be a simple scanned version of your handwritten signature. It can also be a more complex digital encryption that verifies an individual or organization for added security. Whatever the case, digital signatures are one method of authenticating information online. Some signatures are commonly used for securing important data such as banking information, software distribution, contracts, and other confidential or sensitive information. Digital signatures are also often used to create signatures, which have legal significance in most countries. 

Can A Digital Signature Be Forged? 

The developments in the world of AI have led to phenomenal technologies that can replicate almost anything. In the wrong hands, such technologies can be used to analyze and forge signatures.

By their nature, however, some digital signatures are generally reliable and safe from forgery. They have three basic characteristics: authentication, integrity, and nonrepudiation. This makes them a good option for securing and authenticating online documents. But like any other program, digital signatures aren't entirely immune to cybercrime and threats of forgery. 

There are some ways digital signatures have been said to be vulnerable to forgery. One is through Universal Signature Forgery (USF). Through this method, cyber-attackers can manipulate your system and display a fake message validating your signature. The other method could be through Incremental Saving attacks (ISA). With ISA, attackers could manipulate and add content to your already signed document. They could do this through the incremental update. The other possible threat is the Signature Wrapping (SWA) method. The SWA system tricks your signature verification process into digitally signing any information that would've been added through ISA.

How Artificial Intelligence Can Counter Digital Forgery

Artificial intelligence can be used to prevent digital forgery through the following means:  

1. Neural Networks 

Neural networks can be trained to detect a forgery in different types of file systems and transactions. They're based on computer algorithms that function a bit like the human neural system. They're composed of a network of artificial electronic neurons. Neural networks have the capability of adapting to different or changing inputs.

Because neural networks function like the human brain, they can detect anomalies in systems and files, including forged signatures. They're also great for forecasting, risk modeling, security classification, and fraud detection.

Neural networks use a system in which machines can be trained to analyze documents and others files. Once they've understood the patterns of documents, neural networks can detect any forgery, including forged signatures.  

2. Online Digital Signature Tools 

Many digital signature tools are designed to aid digital signatures in the certification of legal documents, emails, images, and videos. To make digital signatures more secure, signing is enabled in platforms and devices such as cameras and word processors, and encryption methods are adopted to verify the authenticity of online content.

3. Blockchain And The Internet Of Things (IoT) 

A blockchain is composed of a block of records, grouped into an encrypted digital chain and distributed across a network of computer systems. Layers of encryptions protect the blockchain to avoid tampering. Blockchain uses a concept that matches data with a unique set of numbers. If these fail to match, it becomes easy to spot a forgery.

Also, when used with an IoT system, a security feature consisting of interconnected devices can be created to trace files or documents to their sources of origin. This could help with countering the forging of digital signatures.  

Takeaways 

Artificial intelligence has made it much easier to authenticate digital signatures. On the other hand, AI has also made breaching security measures easy. By incorporating AI into online platforms, such as social media applications, emails, and other applications that handle digital content, has made digital signatures undeniably safer than paper signatures.