An electronic signature is a trust-service mechanism used to sign digital documents with legal and evidentiary significance. In practice, it binds a signer’s identity to a document and helps prove that the content has not been altered after signing. Depending on the implementation, it may use certificates, cryptographic keys, timestamps, and audit logs to support authenticity, integrity, and nonrepudiation.
In cyber security, electronic signatures matter because they protect business workflows where approvals, contracts, invoices, or compliance records are exchanged through software. Attackers may try to steal signing credentials, abuse privileged workflow accounts, replace documents before signing, or trigger unauthorized signatures through weak integrations. Defenses include multifactor authentication, least privilege, strong key protection, document hashing, signer verification, and tamper-evident audit trails. When document platforms connect to ERP, CRM, and automation systems, the signature process becomes part of the organization’s trust boundary and must be monitored like any other high-value control.