Security of Engineering Stamps 1

[firefighter26m]

I have a concern of my engineering stamp being digitally lifted off of drawings and being used on drawings / documents which I have not actually stamped. I thought that throught the use of Adobe and PDF files this would be protected but have come to discover that Adobe Professional allows you to 'touch-up' protected documents, playing around with it I managed to make changes to values within some of the reports.

Does anyone have a solution to this..someway to protect the stamp to prove that I did or did not actually stamp a particular drawing or document?

 

[GeoPaveTraffic]

I don't know what state you are in, however, in Missouri where I practice; you must sign and date through your seal. There is no provision in this state for a purely electronic seal for that reason. Another way to tell an original seal from a copy is to always sign using blue ink. While color copies can be very good, you can usually see the difference between the copy and original.

I would issue all drawings and reports as paper/mylar copies. If the owner/client needs/wants an electronic set, then provide it along with a letter that indicates that the paper set is the "offical" set and the others were provided at his request.

You should check to see if your state has an electronic seal, if not, then you should only be using paper copies as the original.

 

[IRstuff]

This is precisely why digital copies that are uncontrolled cannot be considered to be masters. Part of our ISO9001 certification knowing that one, and only one, electronic copy of a document that's installed our own server is considered to be the master document. All our documents are caveated with "Uncontrolled document when printed, or when displayed from other than master copy on server"

TTFN

 

[firefighter26m]

I work in Canada, however I like the idea of haveing the disclisure statement stating that the only master copy is the one that I will have on file and that all others are uncontrolled copies. Quite often the client wants an electronically stamped copy, so that statement may be a way to provide it while still covering myself against fraudulent use of the 'lifted' stamp.