Replies to post #5597 on Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

[rachelelise]

Bull

I have inquired further. But I'm thinking that you could use these products on your machine alone, with people in your company and then with people outside your company. Depending on th epurpose and he extent of functionality you might need anything form zero to full infrastructure support. I alos understand that, smart signature, for example, has a range of potential functionality and thus we may find that only certain functions (but not all) are enabled without infrastructure support (i use that term for all the servor level action that wave can provide). Let's face it, the details of what is being offered there are light at this point - it's not even officially launched.

[TonyMcFadden]

Bull dolphin, I'll honestly say, I don't know.

The description of SmartSig from the Wave web site:

SmartSignature facilitates the use of digital certificates with its point-and-click signing ceremony. The software seamlessly accesses a certificate and validates a user as authorized to sign a particular document. Documents are stamped and expiration dates are checked, giving the certificate holder the ability to sign global contracts electronically. SmartSignature works with Adobe Acrobat 4.0 and Acrobat Reader 4.0 and higher.

I'm not sure the mechanism of this, but I don't think it involves Wave's TAN.

[rwk]

Bull_Dolphin / attestation

My understsanding (ie.IMO), is that attestation is the process by which, in this case, a document manager vault would determine the identity of the entity requesting access to a document. Without attestation functionality, this determination is neccessarily based upon private pass codes that each entity would neeed to have for each document that they were interested in. The vault keeper would the permit access based upon passively accepting the proffered pass code rather than more actively asking "who are you?", "does this document exist?" and "are you permissioned?"

With attestation, the database for permssioning would include independent identity objects, document objects and permissioning objects. These objects in combination would determine what subset of the universe of entities should have access to a document. This means that a document creator need only tell the vault manager who has access to that particular document. The individuals so duely permissioneed will then be able to work on the document without having to remember a pssword. Independence of the objects allows the document manager to dynamically change the subset of permissioned users.

Without attestation, each document would need a password that would then have to be handed out to all potential users. This password is then subject to improper use. Also, the permissioned subset can then not easily be changed, as this entails creating a new document with a new password and transmitting this new password to the new group of users.