Electronic Signatures

Electronic Signatures can help to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of NIU operations that require or request signatures to indicate approvals or acknowledgments.

An electronic signature

An electronic signature also known as eSignature is a way of legally signing or approving an electronic document or form replacing a hand signature. 

E-SIGN defines an electronic signature as:

  • an electronic sound, symbol, or process,
  • attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record, and
  • executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record. [15 USC § 7006(5)]

Benefits of using electronic signatures:

  • It's Legally Binding: Electronic signatures are legally binding. E-Sign Act and Illinois Electronic Commerce Act provides legal standing for electronic signatures and electronic records.
  • Its Secure: When all security best practices are observed, these are secure compared to PDF or excel or paper-based forms.
  • It's Fast and Efficient: Electronic Signature help reduce turn-around time, reduces precious manual staff labor, and provides the opportunity to increase efficiency.
  • Its Green and Sustainable: Processes can be completely paperless, cutting down on the need for storing copies, mail costs, and imaging.
  • It's Global and Available 24/7: Provides faculty, students, and staff a secure, effective, and fast way to sign and return documents anytime, anywhere in the world. 

Properly obtained electronic signatures are acceptable for university business forms and documentation. E-Sign Act and Illinois Electronic Commerce Act provide that electronic signatures have full validity under the law when obtained appropriately using compliant technologies, certifications, and authentications. 

Important guidelines in using Electronic Signature and workflow solutions. 

  • When implementing an electronic signature process, all applicable laws, rules, regulations, and NIU policies and procedures must be followed.
  • Data owners and stewards still has the responsibility of following all the data retention, records maintenance and disposal as required by state.
  • These solutions are only tools available to implement electronic signatures and workflow management and are not to be used as document storage solutions.
  • All applicable data retention and record keeping rules must be followed outside the tool.
  • These tools must not be used for the following types of High Risk data at this time.
    • Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI)
    • Credit Card or Payment Card Industry (PCI) Information
    • Export Controlled Research (ITAR, EAR)
    • Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) Data
    • Personal Health Information (PHI, HIPAA)
    • Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

In addition, the transactions should comply with these requirements:

  • The signer must perform an action to signify agreement or approval, such as clicking a checkbox, typing their name into a text box, or importing a graphic representation of a handwritten signature.
  • Please note that checkboxes alone may not be sufficient when it is necessary to verify the electronic signature or transaction’s execution.
  • The signer’s first and last name must be visible and legible below the electronic signature.
  • The time and date of the electronic signature must be captured, stored, and available for retrieval along with the electronic record.
  • Under the ECSA, the State of Illinois may establish minimum security requirements for the use of electronic records and signatures at State Agencies, like NIU for these purposes. As of the original date of this policy, the State has not adopted such minimum-security requirements.  If such minimum-security requirements are established, then they must be followed for the use of electronic signatures at NIU.

Policies and Compliance

Use of these tools must comply with Illinois law and University policies, including:

Comparing Qualtrics Surveys, Kuali Build and Adobe Sign 

The below table should help choose the right solution for departmental needs but if the below table is not helpful, here is a solution suggestion tool (before using the tool, download the file to your computer and use your copy to answer questions) which can help in choosing the right solution based on answers provided.

 

Qualtrics

Kuali Build

Adobe Acrobat Sign

Ease of Use
Simple, easy to navigate platform

Yes

Yes

Somewhat

Good Fit
Ideas for when/how to use each platform

Research, surveys, robust analytics 

Business processes, data workflows 

Contracts involving external vendors or users

Support
Resources and training materials readily available

Yes
(Qualtrics Supported)

Yes
(Kuali Supported)

Yes
(Adobe Supported)

Sharing
Options available for both internal and external users

Yes

Yes

Yes

Workflows
Approvals and notifications can be included in forms

No

Yes

Limited (only signing)

Integrations
Institutional data can be integrated into forms

No

Yes

No

Signature Level
High level guide to applicable signature level (other requirements apply)

Level 1

Level 2

(Non-anonymous forms only)

Level 3


Getting started with Electronic Signatures 

University has published the Electronic Signature policy, which will help NIU departments transition to electronic signatures in order to replace handwritten signatures on documents. 

To better assist the departments in selecting the right solution to use this policy with, university has analyzed the numerous available solutions for electronic signatures and compared them against available university resources and requirements and finalized the following three electronic signature solutions which are best suited in different scenarios. 

Any other electronic signature and workflow solution needs to be approved by IT Steering Committee before being implemented and used in the university. 

FAQs

What is an electronic signature?

An electronic signature also known as eSignature is a way of legally signing or approving an electronic document or form replacing a hand signature.

E-SIGN defines an electronic signature as:

  • an electronic sound, symbol, or process,
  • attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record, and
  • executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record. [15 USC § 7006(5)]
Are electronic signatures legally binding?

Yes, electronic signatures are legally binding. E-Sign Act and Illinois Electronic Commerce Act provides legal standing for electronic signatures and electronic records.

What is a digital signature?

A digital signature is a type of electronic signature, specifically defined by the Illinois Act as “a type of electronic signature that is created by transforming an electronic record and encrypting the resulting transformation with an asymmetric cryptosystem using the signer's private key and the signer's corresponding public key.”

A digital signature is, by definition, considered to be a security procedure [5 ILCS 175/15-10], but it is not the only acceptable security procedure that may be used to prove an electronic signature.

Are all electronic signatures digital signatures?

No, all electronic signature are not digital signatures as digital signatures are just one type of electronic signatures which follow a specific process as mentioned above but all digital signatures are electronic signatures.

Can electronic signature be used in every process or form?

It depends. Due to the validity of electronic signatures by law, they can be used in many processes and forms to replace wet / handwritten signatures with few exceptions when they are required by law, regulation, or other applicable policy or authority. You can refer to the below table for different levels of signatures accepted at NIU which is extracted from the draft policy currently in final review and submission phase and may change based on final approved version. Please note that electronic signatures may be implemented using various methodologies defined below depending on the associated risks that may include fraud, non-repudiation, and financial loss. The quality and security of the e-signature method should be commensurate with the risk and any requirements to assure the authenticity of the signer after a thorough risk assessment performed by the responsible Data Trustee and Data Custodian.



Levels

Risk

Authentication

Assurance Level

Recommendation

Use Case

Level 1

None to Low

NIU Account IDs and passwords are not required for authentication, but a signer's identity could be authenticated using a government-issued identification document.

Little or no confidence in the asserted identity's validity

Basic Electronic Signature - A signatory clicks a checkbox in an electronic agreement to signify agreement or approval

This is appropriate for low-risk transactions. E.g. Basic form submissions without legal implications

Level 2

Low to Medium

NIU Account IDs and passwords are required for authentication to an electronic form or document, after which a signatory may click on a checkbox to signify agreement or approval.

Sufficient confidence in the asserted identity's validity

Electronic Signature NIU Authentication with logging of signed in user and time stamp of signature

This is the most common use case appropriate for individuals within the NIU community. E.g. Most internal process flows, forms and approvals

Level 3

Medium to High

NIU Account IDs and passwords are required to authenticate to an established Electronic Signature Service (e.g. DocuSign, Adobe Sign etc.)

High confidence in the asserted identity's validity

Electronic Signature using established Electronic Signature Service (e.g. DocuSign, Adobe Sign etc.)

This is required in transactions involving external parties who doesn't have NIU credentials. E.g. contracts involving external vendors

Level 4

High

NIU Account IDs and passwords or approved Digital certificates are required to authenticate to a digital signature solution that provides encryption and nonrepudiation for selected electronic documents.

High confidence in the asserted identity's validity

Digital Signature, or other secure electronic signatures under the ECSA.

This is required in the smaller set of transactions where signature nonrepudiation is required by law. E.g. Transactions involving sending/signing any documents that are going to the European Union

Level 5

Very High

A document is required to be printed and an individual must provide an original signature in ink.

Very high confidence in the asserted identity's validity

Handwritten Signature

This is required in the smaller set of transactions where Illinois law or administrative codes require original inked signatures. E.g. Negotiable instruments and other instruments of title where possession confers title
How to comply with electronic signature requirements?

When implementing an electronic or digital signature process, all applicable laws, rules, regulations, and NIU policies and procedures must be followed. In addition, the transactions should comply with these requirements:

Electronic Signatures:

  • The signer must perform an action to signify agreement or approval, such as clicking a checkbox, typing their name into a text box, or importing a graphic representation of a handwritten signature.
  • Please note that checkboxes alone may not be sufficient when it is necessary to verify the electronic signature or transaction’s execution.
  • The signer’s first and last name must be visible and legible below the electronic signature.
  • The time and date of the electronic signature must be captured, stored, and available for retrieval along with the electronic record.
  • Under the ECSA, the State of Illinois may establish minimum security requirements for the use of electronic records and signatures at State Agencies, like NIU for these purposes. As of the original date of this policy, the State has not adopted such minimum-security requirements.  If such minimum-security requirements are established, then they must be followed for the use of electronic signatures at NIU.

Digital Signatures, or other “secure electronic signatures”:

  • As a subset of electronic signatures, non-repudiated and encrypted digital signatures will use a digital signature software application and digital certificates that has yet to be purchased or implemented. Until this is available, any signature that requires this level of legal assurance or poses a high risk to NIU will continue to use handwritten signatures.
  • Under the ECSA, the State of Illinois has established minimum security requirements for the use of digital signatures and secure electronic signatures at State Agencies, like NIU for these purposes. The Illinois Department of Innovation & Technology asserts that, by Legislative directive, it is the sole source of digital certificates for State of Illinois agencies, boards, commissions, universities and those who do business with them.  When digital signatures or other secure electronic signatures are available at NIU, the University must follow the State-established minimum-security requirements for such digital signatures or other secure electronic signatures. 

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