Secure "virtual room" service builds trust in electronic signatures and digital agreements

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Closing deals and signing agreements in a face-to-face meeting seems almost quaint. Soon they will probably be a thing of the past, replaced by digital agreements and document signing.

Yet with this entirely virtual back and forth, how do you know if a document is real and legitimate? That it comes from the person it's supposed to come from? That the signer is not a hacker?

The Web3 world ultimately requires a more sophisticated approach to digital agreement security.

To address this issue, cybersecurity firm OneSpan today announced the general availability of its Virtual Room cloud service, a secure environment for organizations to offer real-time support.

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"Security must be woven throughout the transaction process given the patch-quilt nature of today's cloud - and this is where the e-signature market falls short as e-signature companies electronic signature are not security companies,” said Matthew Moynahan, OneSpan President and CEO.

The virtual data room market is young but growing: it is expected to reach $3.2 billion by 2026, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.5% over 2021 .

Similarly, the digital signature market will reach $42 billion by 2030, up $4.4 billion from 2021, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28%.

OneSpan's new product competes with those offered by iDeals, SecureDocs, ShareVault, Ansarada and Citrix ShareFile.

“The number one attack vector today is targeting people with the intent to steal their credentials,” said Jim Lundy, Founder and CEO of Aragon Research.

This makes user authentication vital for transactions, he said. And for documents that need to be highly secure, this process has traditionally been slow and cumbersome. This sparked what he called a "race" to digital onboarding, which allows users' identities to be digitally verified in minutes rather than hours or days. In particular, it becomes a "hot use case" for new account openings.

But electronic documents require higher levels of identity verification and validation: users must meet a range of identity requirements such as biometric verification (e.g. facial ID) and passwords. one-time password. Only when the user is verified are the documents presented, Lundy said.

Enterprises are increasingly adopting credential management and advanced multi-factor authentication that generates tokens. It's a "proven and more secure way to prevent user credential phishing attacks," he said. Similarly, to further speed up the process, content AI (artificial intelligence) is increasingly being used which automatically validates user documents such as driver's licenses and images via image verification.

But in addition to these tools, organizations need to train their IT and C-suite staff, Lundy said. "There are very sophisticated products...