eduSign

Sunet (Swedish University Computer Network) has developed the eduSign service for electronic signing of PDF and XML documents. It is free for us at Mid Sweden University to use. Currently, the eduSign service can be used for digital documents that are also stored digitally. However, it should not be used for documents that are managed and stored in physical form.

EduSign follows DIGG's framework for digital signatures for government agencies, which has been ensured that the signing is legally binding.

At Mid Sweden University, documents should primarily be signed electronically when a signature is required. Paper signatures should only be used when there are specific reasons for doing so.

Guides are available to help you determine when a document needs to be signed, how to use electronic signatures, and how electronic signatures should be validated and managed.

Read the guides on electronic signing and validation

Digital signing 

Instructions for signing a document

The eduSign service is accessed on https://edusign.sunet.se and can be used to upload and sign PDF documents or XML documents. This is easily done by performing the following steps:

1. Go to eduSign 
2. Upload documents to sign 
3. Agree to sign 
4. Identify yourself with the appropriate SWAMID electronic ID 
5. Download signed document 
   
   

If you do not have a MiunID (miun-account) or other SWAMID

EduSign for external

Signing with multiple signatures

Multiple people can sign the same document. This is done by uploading the document signed by one person and signing again by the next person until all people have signed, etc.

EduSign Assurance Levels

Version 1.4 of eduSign introduces the ability to request a specific assurance level (also known as a trust level) to sign a document. This is to be able to determine what Assurance Level an identity had when the document was signed, but also to be able to request a certain Assurance Level of identities that are to sign a document.

Below is a simplified explanation of Assurance Levels:
Assurance Levels are a way to ensure how confident you can be that a digital identity on the Internet really belongs to the person claiming to be acting through that identity, e.g. when someone signs a digital document with a particular user account.

There are different frameworks for determining how to ensure that an identity is really the person that the person claims to be, this is called Assurance Levels. This page and eduSign currently support SWAMID's definition of Assurance Levels.

Learn more about Assurance Levels

Authentication

Validation of electronic signatures

The documents that are signed can be validated in a special validation service available here: https://validator.edusign.sunet.se

1. Read the guide for verification.
2. Go to eduSign page for validation
3. Upload documents and verify

Currently, these signatures cannot be validated in standard PDF readers from Adobe without certain measures. This is because Adobe's PDF reader did not list our certificate authority as a trusted issuer.

This can be manually fixed by the following steps:

1. Open the signature panel
2. Expand the signature and also the "Signature Details" row
3. Click on "Certificate Details" 
4. Select the top certificate in the left column 
5. Click on the "Trust" tab in the right column 
6. Click on "Add to Trusted Certificates" and confirm

From now on, all PDF documents signed with this service can also be validated by your PDF reader directly.