How to digitally sign all the required documents?

Ok, look, all this roll of digitally signing documents for public tenders is not as complicated as it sounds, but it does have its crumb. First, you have to understand which diantres is a digital signature. It is not your scanned scribble or anything like that. It is a cryptographic invention - basically, an invisible seal that proves that the document is yours and that no one has touched it on the way. If someone alters it, pum! The firm no longer addresses and sings the mischief instantly.

The first thing you have to do is get a digital certificate. Yes, it sounds boring process, but without that you are not going anywhere. It is issued by a certification authority (such as the police, but digital and less intimidating). That certificate is your DNI in the digital world. In the EU they send with the Eidas regulation, in the US they pull the esign, but go, the idea is the same: that the firm has legal validity and does not remain in “word of honor”.

Do you already have your certificate? Brilliant. Now you lack the digital signature software. You can find from Super Pro programs to free options. The fact is that the software generates a kind of “fingerprint” of the document, the figure with your private key (which only you have) and sticks it to the file. That is the digital signature, neither more nor less.

And how is it done? You open the document with the program, choose your certificate, the program makes its magic and ready, signed document. If you change a single comma after signing, the firm breaks and you will have to sign again, so you better check well before giving the button.

Eye, each document is separately. There is no "signing the entire package" of a pass. And if the document changes after signing it, you will have to repeat the process. Such is life.

Why so much mess? Because the digital signature covers your backs: it ensures that the document has not been manipulated, proof that you sent it and, the best, you cannot back down and say "I was not." There is no escape, colleague.

In short, you need two things: a digital certificate and a program to sign. With that, sign what they ask for the tender and you are calm. Of course, do not even think about the laws of the country on digital signatures, which then comes the scares. And that's it, it's not rocket science, just a bit of digital bureaucracy.