Cryptography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 6.6
The SAGA tool for the signature of scanned copies of records of civil status at the
Service central d'état civil. Copies are then printed and delivered on security paper.
Screenshot courtesy of the Service central d'état civil.
The SCEC's legal counsel argued that the computer was just another
writing implement: officers at the SCEC were simply abandoning one tool,
the pen, to replace it with another, the digitized signature, but in both
cases remained fully in control of the signing process. In both cases, they
were simply
manually affixing
their signature, in full compliance with the
rules of the IGREC. In the end, the Ministry of Justice did not oppose the
move, in spite of a legal ambiguity somewhat at odds with the solemn
character of authentic acts. Officers of civil status at the SCEC stopped
using their handwritten signatures and switched to the new system, which
almost entirely eliminated any physical interaction with the paper docu-
ment (see figure 6.6). The system was eventually endorsed by the first
working group on electronic authenticity, much to the consternation of
the Ministry of Justice, which noted:
The report defines as an “electronic signature” the scanned image of handwritten
signature as used by the SCEC. It would be preferable that such a statement with
