Safeguard Dynamic Content Delivery — USPS Electronic Postmark

The United States Postal Service® (USPS) Electronic Postmark™ (EPM) protects the integrity of your electronic data through the use of auditable time stamps, digital signatures and hash codes. Through the USPS EPM web-based service, any third party can verify the authenticity of electronic content. There are a multitude of advantages to using the USPS EPM:

Trust and Privacy
• Nationwide reach and trust
• Correspondence handled by USPS subject to confidentiality statutes and regulations
• Neutral third party with universal public service mandate

Legality and Longevity
• History of providing postmarks with legal significance
• Long-lived statutory purpose "to bind the nation together through the … correspondence of the people"
39 U.S.C. § 101

About activePDF Toolkit™

activePDF Toolkit is a scalable, programmable COM object that allows you to dynamically create and manipulate PDF files. With Toolkit's robust API, the automation of virtually any PDF manipulation task becomes possible - users can append, stamp, stitch, merge, paint, form-fill, secure PDF and more. Adding watermarks, setting form fields, incorporating headers and footers, adding bookmarks, and many other tasks are all made simple with activePDF Toolkit. Within today's web-based work environments, activePDF Toolkit also provides the functionality to transfer HTML form content into tamperproof PDF forms, detect PDF modification, and secure confidential documents such as contracts, invoices, and financial statements. Toolkit also converts over 40 image types to PDF on the fly, enables stamping of text and images, and optimizes PDF for faster web display. The extensive functionality and features within activePDF Toolkit make it a leading tool within the PDF development market.

Real Life example

Sam, a seasoned online trader, logs on to the TipTop Securities website to enter his daily trade. In order to complete the trade entry, Sam fills out and submits a simple HTML form. On the backend, Sam's trade information is submitted to the TipTop Securities application server, where it is date and time stamped and digitally stored with the USPS for a period of seven years. Within seconds, Sam receives his trade confirmation receipt as a PDF (Portable Document Format) file that has been stamped with a USPS Electronic Postmark logo. Designed to deter and detect any fraudulent tampering of this data, the EPM provides evidence to support non-repudiation of electronic transactions, affording both Sam and TipTop Securities the satisfaction of knowing that their transactions are completed securely.

How does it work?	The USPS EPM server generates a date and time stamp. The time stamp and the hash code are then signed using the EPM server's private key. The resulting cryptographic object is called an electronic postmark. Once the hash code and time stamp are stored inside this signed cryptographic object, it is impossible to alter or forge them without invalidating the electronic postmark. The USPS EPM server returns the resultant electronic postmark to the TipTop server where it is encoded and embedded into the content of the PDF, completing Toolkit's digital signing process. The signed PDF is then delivered in Sam's browser.
The HTML data from Sam's online form is posted to the TipTop application server where activePDF Toolkit™ dynamically populates a PDF form (the trade confirmation receipt) with this information, flattens the form fields and then adds 128-bit encryption, securing the PDF against unauthorized editing. activePDF Toolkit then generates a signed hash (a hash code is a sequence of numbers that serves as a unique fingerprint for a file) of the PDF, which is passed to the USPS EPM server.

About EPM

About activePDF Toolkit™

Real Life example

How does it work?