Policy based signature authentication system and method

A hardware machine-readable storage medium in communication with at least one processor, the machine-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor of a machine, causes the machine to perform operations comprising:

• receiving, from a device of an intended signer, a request to access and sign a document;
• determining a policy assigned to the intended signer;
• accessing the policy assigned to the intended signer from one or more group policies, wherein the one or more group policies, that specify whether an intended authentication mechanism is applicable to one or more intended signers, are created based on received policy attributes;
• based on the policy, determining whether an authentication mechanism is applicable to the intended signer, wherein the policy identifies a type of authentication mechanism selected from a plurality of authentication mechanisms;
• in response to the determining that the authentication mechanism is applicable to the intended signer, causing a user interface indicating a request to perform the authentication mechanism to be presented to the intended signer;
• and
• providing access to view and sign the document based on the intended signer satisfying the authentication mechanism.

A system comprising:

• at least one processor of a machine;
• and
• a signature module to receive, from a device of an intended signer, a request to access and sign a document;
• a policy module to access the policy assigned to the intended signer from one or more group policies, wherein the one or more group policies, that specify whether an intended authentication mechanism is applicable to one or more intended signers, are created based on received policy attributes and to determine a policy assigned to the intended signer and to determine whether an authentication mechanism is applicable to the intended signer based on the policy, wherein the policy identifies a type of authentication mechanism selected from a plurality of authentication mechanisms;
• and
• an authentication module to cause a user interface indicating a request to perform the authentication mechanism to be presented to the intended signer in response to the determining that the authentication mechanism is applicable to the intended signer,
• the signature module to provide access to view and sign the document based on the intended user satisfying the authentication mechanism.