Adobe Achieves Qualified Trust Service Provider Certification

Posted by John Jolliffe, European Government Relations Lead

In a world of fake news and the easy digital manipulation of content, knowing that an electronic document really is what it purports to be has never been more important.

It’s a subject Adobe has been working on for years, and we have covered many of those milestones in previous blog entries: we were the first major software provider to support the EU Trusted List, enabling Acrobat users to confirm whether a digital signature was backed by the most secure kind of digital certificate; and we have also been working with the Cloud Signature Consortium to develop industry-wide standards for the creation and validation of remote digital signatures, allowing people to securely and easily sign documents through mobile devices and cloud-based services.

A few days ago, Adobe reached another significant milestone: following an extensive external audit we were formally certified as a Qualified Timestamp Service provider under EU law. While this sounds like a technicality, a qualified time-stamp service provides legally-binding date and time references to prove the existence and integrity of an electronic document.

For many users, especially ones in regulated industries, that kind of assurance is business critical. With this announcement, Adobe Sign and Document Cloud users know that their signed documents will benefit from a secure time reference for all digital signature transactions, and proof of their Long Term Validity (LTV) where their preservation and archival is required by law.

The service is immediately available in the market leading Adobe Sign cloud-based electronic signature platform for all EU-based customers.

It’s just the latest sign of Adobe’s commitment to investing in eIDAS compliance to facilitate businesses in the EU and between the EU and other regions. We will continue to work with the EU and national governments to improve the security of digital documents and transactions and make technologies widely available to enhance trust and inclusion.