Digital Security for Adobe Acrobat 6.0 from nCipher

nCipher’s booth at the RSA Conference 2004

nCipher launched pdfProof, a solution that works with Adobe Acrobat 6.0 software and establishes a single point within in the enterprise to digitally sign and securely time stamp any Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) document directly from any desktop equipped with Acrobat 6.0.

pdfProof establishes an Adobe PDF document’s authenticity and securely binds it to the identity of its originator establishing an audit trail certifying the integrity of the document’s content at a securely measured point in time.

When discussing pdfProof with Help Net Security, Alex van Someren, CEO of nCipher said: “As electronic documents move between different people and organizations, nCipher’s pdfProof provides a cost-effective solution to help prove a document has not been altered or tampered with on its travels. By creating a central point for signing and time stamping a PDF file, we are not only reducing the possible points of security risk, but we are eliminating the costs associated with supplying digital certificates on multiple desktops.”

“nCipher’s experience in the delivery of cryptographic security enables us to provide a high level of security allowing organizations to meet compliance guidelines for electronic documents” he added.

nCipher’s pdfProof solution provides a more cost-effective and yet still more secure alternative to the traditional approach of signing documents on individual users’ desktop PCs. In many situations, for example where documents are submitted by companies to external regulators, signatures by individuals can be meaningless and moreover are dangerously insecure. Sealing documents for submittal or archive at the organizational level using a shared resource not only removes the need to issue electronic credentials to each employee but also allows the whole organization to take advantage of a significantly higher grade of security.

pdfProof comprises a network-based appliance that is easy accessible though the use of the pdfProof plug-in by any networked Acrobat user within the organization. The pdfProof appliance can seal up to 125 documents per second on behalf of a company, department or government agency. To maximise security all signing, time stamping and clock operations are performed securely within an nCipher FIPS 140 Level-3 validated tamper-resistant, Hardware Security Module (HSM). The exact time that a document is signed is synchronised with the internationally recognised time standard, Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).

For more information on nCipher, XML and enterprise security, read an interview with Dr. Nicko van Someren, nCipher’s CTO.