Firms put digital sigs on e-forms

Federal agencies wanting to make Web-based forms more secure now have the option of using digital signature capabilities through a standard Web browser, JetForm Corp. and Entrust Technologies Inc. announced this week.

JetForm's electronic forms solution, ReachForm, is the first out-of-the-box solution that operates with Entrust's TruePass software, which provides digital signatures on Web-based forms, the companies announced.

Furthermore, ReachForm is the first TruePass integration to be deemed Entrust-Ready, which means that it has undergone testing and can be trusted for secure transactions, and the heightened security comes at no additional cost to ReachForm users.

TruePass is Entrust's "zero-footprint" Web security and privacy solution, which means it doesn't require any client software to be installed or configured on users' systems.

The integrated product is being beta tested by a number of JetForm customers, including some at the federal and state levels, but they cannot be identified because of confidentiality agreements, said Sydney Sloan, product marketing manager for e-forms at JetForm.

The pricing on ReachForm will remain at $75,000 per server, she said.

This joint initiative will increase the security and authentication capabilities of ReachForm applications by providing users with the increased protection of digital signatures, said David Welch, vice president and general manager of e-forms at JetForm. It also will generate records for tracking transactions and authorizing approvals throughout online business processes.

In addition to teaming up on the technology integration, JetForm—which has 3 million federal users—is the first company to build a solution for Entrust.net Signature ID Service. This public digital signature service provides a Web portal that enables customers to obtain digital certificates for authentication and digital signatures.

JetForm's ReachForm users will be able to create applications that integrate with Entrust.net service and still use the TruePass technology for secure data collection from any machine or environment.