Ministry of Defense, UK, uses customized E-Lock DeskSeal Desktop to digitally sign & authenticate the reports from the Skynet Project

Authenticated Report Signing | Tracking of Report Signing Activities | Paperless Reporting

Skynet - A Ministry of Defense Project (UK), Case Study

Customer Profile:

Skynet is a family of military satellites, operated on behalf of the UK Ministry of Defense (MoD). The Skynet project involves setting up of satellite communications for the UK military. It provides strategic communication services to the three branches of the British Armed Forces and to NATO forces engaged on coalition tasks.

Business Challenge:

The Skynet Project is a strategically important project. Ground control staff involved with the working and maintenance of the satellites prepares a daily report on their activities. Since these activities directly affect the satellite maintenance and communication, it is imperative that the staff signs and submits their daily reports.

Another problem that was associated with the workflow was that, since the help desk was working 24x7 on this project; different users depending on their shifts shared the computers. So MoD wanted an audit report to be created every time a report was signed, which indicated the name of the user who signed, the name of the report that was signed and the time of signing.

Solution requirements:

• The solution to allow, generating attached or detached signatures as per the users’ choice.
• Right click functionality for signing and verification.
• Before signing, the signer certificate should be checked against a CRL.
• Signing should continue only if the revocation checking succeeds.
• All signing operations through the application should be logged in the local security event log.
• Provides cross compatibility i.e. Acrobat file signed in one version can be verified through another version.
• The signing confirmation (text that is displayed to the user before signing) should be customizable through a text file.
• PKCS #7 compliant signatures.
• Batch signing.
  

E-Lock Solution:

E-Lock customized its DeskSeal Desktop product to provide all the features as per the MoD requirements.

Customized DeskSeal solution, allowed the members working on the Skynet project to digitally sign documents and reports, which was compliant with PKCS #7, standard.

The solution provides revocation check before signing to ensure that the official person signs the reports. It also provides the facility for the users wherein they can customize the text that is displayed in the signature

Signed reports are time stamped to indicate the time of signing the reports. Additionally all the signing activities are logged into the Windows event manager with the relevant data required by MoD. On a daily basis, the event manager logs are stored along with the digitally signed help desk reports, which ensure the authenticity of the archived files along with an audit trail.

The E-Lock DeskSeal solution provided to MoD is easy to install and user friendly, which even novice user can use for digital signing without any prior training.

Benefits:

• The staff signs the reports using E-Lock DeskSeal and stores this electronically; with this, the process has become completely paperless eliminating the generation of huge amount of paper and storage
• Authentication and Time Stamping feature for the reports signed
• All the signing activities are logged into separate event log enabling MoD to keep check on signing activities
• PKCS#7 compliant digital signing and encryption that maintains the data integrity intact
• Easy to install and user-friendly
  

About E-Lock:

E-Lock is a leading provider of digital signing solutions, which are compliant with worldwide e-Signature legislation. Founded in 1997 the company is headquartered in McLean, VA. It offers desktop and web based security solutions. E-Lock products are used across Government, Healthcare and Financial organizations around the globe.