What is an RSSP and what role do they play?

By Pieter Rensburg, Head of Customer Success, Ascertia

Regulations like eIDAS introduced the need for cloud-based signature authentication and qualified digital certificates provided by Trust Service Providers (TSP) and Qualified Trust Service Providers (QTSPs).A key part of the CSC’s mission is to standardise this process and part of the CSC standardised architecture involves Remote Signing Service Providers (RSSPs). 

So, RSSPs play an important role in digital trust and remote signing, but what do they do precisely?

When a digital signature is required, the person signing the document often uses a cloud-based solution such as SigningHub.Behind the scenes, when the signer applies their signature to the document electronically, the solution sends a hash to be signed via the CSC protocol to an RSSP.  The RSSP solution will then complete the necessary authorisation, sign the hash and then return the hash back to the signing solution to compile into the signature. A single RSSP can connect to multiple signing solutions such as SigningHub to deliver remote advanced or qualified electronic signatures.

Ascertia works with many Trust Service Providers and RSSPs and as a member of the CSC, the company is committed to developing interoperable solutions that are easy to use and are compliant with the latest standards.