Aragon Research on the need to protect digital agreements

Security is not what it used to be — literally. To be secure now means to be protected against risks. But when the word first entered the English lexicon 500 years ago, it generally meant “overconfident.”

There is no danger of overconfidence today. In many respects, our world of deep fakes resembles a hall of mirrors where the very idea of reality is up for question. We’re buffeted daily by stories of data breaches, hacker attacks, and theft of everything from cryptocurrency and title deeds to identity and life savings.

Now that even the highest-value transactions and agreements are occupying digital space, with their associated legal commitments, they’re subject to a myriad of regulatory rules. Cross-border identity verification and data privacy and sovereignty regulations vary from one jurisdiction to the next, increasing the complexity of doing business across borders. And all this is taking place in the context of fragmented on-premise and third-party cloud systems ...

This is precisely the kind of landscape that’s a playground for threats — threats that are both well-practiced and well-resourced.

Successfully navigating this landscape largely depends on whether you believe security is always destined to get in the way of customer experience.

In fact, security has for so long been the department of “no” that it has almost become synonymous with friction. And while it’s true that today’s internet-savvy consumers expect a certain degree of “good” friction attached to security, more security is not generally perceived as a good thing.

At OneSpan, our view is that security must be seamlessly embedded into customer experiences, in such a way that digital transactions are protected from end to end.

Two 2023 reports from Aragon Research highlight this necessity, as well as the way toward a solution.

The Shift to People-Centric Transaction Management

According to Aragon’s analysis in The Shift to People-Centric Transaction Management, enterprises need to pivot to a customer-centric approach to digital transaction management (DTM), with the goal of improving focus on a secure experience across all digital interactions and transactions.

Aragon Research’s Jim Lundy refers to this notion as people-centric transaction management: 

… A people-centric DTM platform will give enterprises peace of mind when it comes to making sure their data and their customers’ data remain secure, all the while enabling a seamless transaction experience…Not only do enterprises need to be able to trust that the people they are transacting with are who they say they are–their customers also need to be able to trust that a company is who they say they are. 

The bottom line is that enterprises must find a way to keep the customer journey simple and make it secure.      

As much as a business needs to know who they are dealing with, in today’s threat environment customers also need to know that they are dealing with a legitimate business and not a criminal organization that has spoofed a known brand’s website. 

Aragon Research Globe Report

Released in June 2023, the Aragon Research Globe Report names OneSpan a Leader in the DTM space, and notes our focus on security in today’s digital-first world.

OneSpan’s solutions enable organizations to provide an exceptional customer experience, with the highest levels of security and compliance at a regional and industry level. That’s how we ensure that digital agreements remain secure and unaltered throughout their lifecycle, from e-signature all the way to storage.

The proof: highly regulated and compliance-driven markets are core to our business, as called out in the report, and we offer e-signature globally with more than 30 years of expertise in highly regulated industries.  In tandem with security, OneSpan aims to make digital transactions intuitive for both signers and senders, which is why the platform offers a variety of features designed to make the e-signature experience fast and easy – from drag-and-drop document preparation to guided signing processes.

OneSpan's offering also includes a range of authentication capabilities, including FIDO, biometrics, in-app push notification, Cronto® cryptograms, and QR codes that cater to customer needs. By prioritizing user-friendly authentication, we ensure a seamless experience for e-signature without compromising on security.

A last point on our security focus: OneSpan is the only e-signature provider in the market to offer a single and comprehensive audit trail of the entire agreement process–from identity verification and authentication to e-signature. This includes the ID and authentication check method used and the detailed results of the verification. As a result, you get a complete picture of the transaction with strong identity assurance to demonstrate compliance.

Closing thoughts

On a closing note, a final thought on etymology and word origins: it turns out that risk is at the root of the word “experience.” Inevitably, that’s experience as in “customer experience” as well as “life experience.” This just goes to show that risk is an aspect of everything we do, which is why security should be too.

Download the Aragon Research Globe Report for more eSignature security insights and recommendations.

Datasheet

eSignature Security Checklist

Simplify your eSignature evaluation with this summary checklist. It contains more than 20 security requirements to look for across 6 security categories. 

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