Digital signatures are coming, promising the rebirth of the Internet gold rush and the death of paper. Either that or a security nightmare. Earlier this year, President Clinton took the first step toward ending Hancock's long association with autographs by signing . . .
Digital signatures are coming, promising the rebirth of the Internet gold rush and the death of paper. Either that or a security nightmare. Earlier this year, President Clinton took the first step toward ending Hancock's long association with autographs by signing the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act into law. For future generations, the act of endorsement will evoke not the graceful hand of a founding father but clumsy digits keying in passwords.

Among dot-coms hawking e-commerce solutions, no one is mourning the signature's swan song. According to June Felix, chairman and CEO of CertCo (www.certco.com), a provider of online risk management services, the law "really opens the e-commerce space. To have something that's now enforceable and uniform, it's a great help."

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