Authentication methods in Acrobat Sign

Authentication is a process that helps to ensure that a person is who they say they are by providing specific information or data that is unique to that individual. Identity authentication helps to reduce fraud and add an additional layer of security to documents that are signed. Authenticating the identity of someone signing a document is a key element of Acrobat Sign. Acrobat Sign supports a full range of authentication methods, from single-factor email verification to sophisticated two-factor authentication like those based on government-issued documents. The methods used to authenticate a recipient are listed just to the right of the signer’s email address. By selecting the question mark, you get a view of all the options available. Email is where you simply identify the signing participants by their email address, which requires a participant to have access to the email to receive and view and sign the agreement. This is the default option in Acrobat Sign. Password authentication simply requires a sender to define a password that the signer will need to know in order to unlock and sign the agreement. Phone authentication allows the signer to receive a one-time code through SMS or voice call. Phone authentication requires the sender to know the phone number of the signing participant before sending. KBA, or knowledge-based authentication, is only available in the U.S. and requires signers to provide a few key pieces of information like answering some questions that only they should be able to answer. Acrobat Sign authentication simply asks the signer to log in to their Acrobat Sign account before viewing and signing the agreement, which is great for internal users within an organization. Government ID uses a government-issued ID, such as a driver’s license or passport that is scanned, using the signer’s mobile device to detect the validity of the ID before presenting the document to be signed. Phone, KBA, and Government ID are premium options and are metered resources that must be purchased prior to use. Contact your success manager for details. And finally, the Digital Identity Gateway leverages a federated identity provider, IDP, that is licensed separately to the Acrobat Sign service and must be configured prior to becoming accessible when sending agreements. When using the Gateway, an identity report is available through the Manage page. In this example, I will show two different identity authentication methods. One I’ll set as a password authentication and the other phone authentication. I’ll add password authentication for the first signer. You’ll need to confirm the password. You can also communicate a hint to the signer what the password is by using the private message function, which I’ll go ahead and do. Or you could communicate the password through a means outside of Acrobat Sign, like an email message. Next, we’ll add phone authentication here to the second approver. You’ll need to know the signer’s phone number, and they’ll receive a one-time code delivered through SMS to unlock the document to sign. Let’s go ahead and send this agreement for signature and then take a look at the signer’s experience when interacting with the selected forms of authentication. For the password authentication, the recipient receives an email with the URL to review and sign the document that includes the private message, which is a hint to the password they need to unlock the document. They enter a password and then select continue. The password is then verified and only when successfully entered are they able to view and sign the agreement. I’ll go ahead and quickly fill out this form, first by agreeing to the terms. I’ll enter the information that’s necessary and then go ahead and sign. Now for the phone authentication, recipients also receive an email asking to sign, just like the password authentication. They select the URL to review and sign the agreement, but first they encounter a challenge to enter a code that can be sent through SMS or read in a phone call. After successfully entering the code from the text message and pasting it into Acrobat Sign, where it’s then verified, they are able to view and sign the document. And that’s a brief summary of all the authentication methods available in Acrobat Sign.