What Services Does a Certification Services Provider Offer?
22/01/2019
Being a Certificate Services Provider (PSC) implies being accredited by the Mexican Ministry of Economy to provide trustworthy services that guarantee secure electronic transactions. As the amount of electronic transactions rise, the security and integrity of the information shared is an indispensable requirement that a PSC guarantees through different services.
EDICOM is a Certification Services Provider in Mexico. It has recently been accredited as the first legally authorized third party in Mexico related to security in the electronic digitalization processing of data messages.
These are the main services offered by a PSC:
Issuance of Digital Certificates of Electronic Signatures
The electronic signature is an identification mechanism that allows users to substitute the handwritten signature but with identical guarantees. An electronic certificate, signed electronically by a PSC, links signature verification data to a signer, confirming its authenticity.
A digital certificateidentifies parties of an electronic communication, exchanges encrypted information to guarantee data confidentiality and electronically signs documents to prove the integrity and provenance of the information.
In addition to issuing digital certificates, a PSC assumes the responsibility of guaranteeing the veracity of the digital certificate data.
Among the most common usages of electronic certificates are the electronic signatures of documents and software, data encryption, digitalization, certified storage and personal identification.
Issuance of Digital Time Stamps
The time stamp (Timestamping) confirms the existence of the data and proves that it has not been altered during a certain period of time.
A Time Stamping Authority such as EDICOM acts as a trusted third party, proving the existence of such electronic data at a specific date and time.
The electronic time stamp has many applications. It is used in certified invoice digitalization processes, for the storage of all types of electronic documents and in any process in which it is key to certify that certain electronic data existed at a given time in the form in which it was presented to the Time Stamping Authority.
Generation of Certificates of Conservation in Accordance with NOM151
NOM151 is the official Mexican standard that establishes the requirements for the conservation of electronic message data. This standard requires the issuance of a certificate by a PSC, which proves the integrity of the original document in relation to the requirement once certain cryptographic procedures have been applied.
The records of conservation for data messages allow physical or moral persons (through the legal representative) to accredit documents with any third party or authority that has been keeping the electronic documents in tact and unchanged since they were generated. The modification of the technological process to generate records allows for the possibility of speeding up updates to always guarantee the use of reliable algorithms and to replace violated algorithms during the processing evolution. This in turn simplifies both the request and the generation for constancy.
Digitalization of documents for physical support
The processes and requirements to be fulfilled are described in order to carry out the process of document digitalization, guaranteeing their integrity and allowing for the substitution of the physical document by means of the preservation of the original document. Within the definition, three figures are defined: the merchants who want to digitalize their documents, the Legally Authorized third party and the Digitalizer.
Legally Authorized Third Party: This is the PSC that chooses to control the digitalization process at all times, being responsible for verifying procedures, and signing the resulting data messages as long as it is noted that the migration was carried out in an integral and unalterable manner through a comparison process.
Digitalizer: This is the company responsible for operationally executing the migration processes of the documents from their physical support and generating the data messages as a result.
Updating applicable rules for PSCs is a step forward in the digital evolution and implementation of technology in favor of eliminating paper and simplifying operation and automation processes that translate into high costs, prolonged wait times and risk when documents are managed through physical media.
Contact us if you want more information or if you want to start the digitalization process of your paper warehouse.