Digital Postmarks - The Process

The Process

  • An electronic document is created
  • Digital Postmarking client software signs the document locally
  • The signed document is sent to the Digital Postmarking service for postmarking
  • Upon receipt, the Digital Postmark service first validates the authenticity of the signature
  • If the signature is valid then a timestamp is generated by the DPM service as a counter-signature that includes the date and time
  • The document, signature, validation results and timestamp are stored in the Digital Postmark non-repudiation database
  • A Digital Postmark Receipt, including the validation results and the timestamp, is returned to the client software
  • The client software wraps the original document with the DPM receipt
  • To verify the signature, local cryptographic verification can do a quick check of integrity or the full receipt or even the original document can be retrieved from the DPM service using the XML Verify request by other parties at a later date and compared with the receipt stored with the document.

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