Making a Digital Identity Assertion like the Notary Public System

In the real world when you have a very important document that needs to be signed and the identity of the signor be validated, you get a Notary Public involved. The Notary checks the signors ID, witnesses the signature, and then countersigns the document and stamps it. Then if the Notary is following the “model notarial act” they and the signor sign a notary journal. This makes the signature more legally binding than a normal signature. This notarization process is necessary on many documents like wills, loans and adoption papers.

This whole process is necessary because you can’t imprint your photo ID onto a piece of paper, and even if you could somehow imprint it onto the piece of paper it wouldn’t be a good idea to have all those details on a piece of paper.

An X.509 certificate is very much equivalent to an inked signature and in some states here in the US they are just as legally binding. But what about a Notaries countersigning capability? Well, if we look at Class 3 and Class 4 certificates and the checking that is supposed to be done for them, then the Notarization process is already done, because the ID check is done. This makes the Notary process almost completely unnecessary, or it would be if the certs were protected, say on a smartcard, to prevent misuse.

Because of the fact that most people don’t protect their certificates properly, and the TIME of a signature is very important, eNotarization, becomes reasonable again.

So how would a CA do due diligence for identity validation, to create a class 3 or 4 certificate that means what it is supposed to. Well the obvoius answer is to model a system after a real world system that is supposed to address the same problem, and try to eliminate the problems that have presented themselves.

So what should a Notary be doing?

Narrowing the various powers of a Notary Public down to what the office. This sounds like what a Web of Trust Notary should be doing
Ignoring the fact that lots of states don’t require any training or testing for Notaries, a Notary should be familiar with the photo ids, and should be able to identify a fake. So they can validate the signature.

What process does a Notary follow?

Ideally this

So what would need to be done for persona validation for an electronic Notariztion?

Ideally, exactly the same thing with a few considerations.

• Notary seals are used to show that 1, they are a notary, and 2 that it is the Notary doing the validation, not someone forging a signature.  The only way to get this kind of certainty in the electronic world is to protect the Notarys cert on a smartcard.
• Notary Publics must be bonded (and sometimes insured) electronic Persona validation means nothing if the Notaries aren’t similarly covered.
• Notary Publics are subject to malfeasance rules, electronic Notaries must also be subject to such regulations.
• Notary Publics (in states that have updated laws) must show knowledge of the laws that govern them AND have manuals that help them spot fake IDs. Electronic Notaries also need to have this knowledge and be able to prove it.