Index
Get the latest news right in your inbox
Document integrity verification has become an essential pillar of digital transformation, especially in a context where business, legal, and administrative processes are increasingly carried out in electronic environments. Ensuring that a digital document has not been altered, that it is authentic, and that it can be reliably validated over time is a critical requirement for complying with regulations, preventing fraud, and building trust among organizations, customers, and public administrations.
In this comprehensive guide, we take an in-depth look at what a document integrity verification service is, how it works, what technologies it uses, what regulations govern it, and why it is a key part of any modern document compliance strategy.
What is a document integrity verification service?
A document integrity verification service is a set of processes, technologies, and technical controls designed to verify that a digital document has not been modified since its issuance or signing, keeping its content, structure, and legal value intact.
What does document integrity mean and what are its objectives?
Protecting the accuracy and probative value of documents is essential in any process where information supports decisions, compliance, or responsibilities. From a technical and legal standpoint, document integrity means that:
- The content of the document is exactly the same as in its original version.
- There have been no unauthorized alterations, manipulations, deletions, or insertions.
- It can be reliably demonstrated who issued it, when, and under what conditions.
- Verifiable evidence is preserved in the long term, even years later.
The main objective of these services is to guarantee the authenticity, reliability, and legal validity of electronic documents throughout their life cycle.
Why is integrity verification key to digital transformation?
In digital transformation, documents are no longer simple files, but legal and evidentiary assets. Contracts, invoices, certificates, medical reports, policies, notarial documents, or administrative files must be able to be validated electronically even years after their issuance. Without robust verification mechanisms:
- The risk of document fraud multiplies.
- Regulatory compliance becomes impossible to demonstrate.
- Legal certainty is lost, especially in legal disputes or audits.
- Digital processes lose trust and credibility with customers, partners, and regulators.
That is why integrity verification is a structural pillar of modern document compliance.
What types of documents can undergo integrity verification?
Virtually any digital document can be verified if it has the appropriate technical elements. Among the most common are:
- Commercial and employment contracts.
- Electronic invoices and accounting documents.
- Official certificates, such as academic and professional certificates.
- KYC/KYB documentation.
- Financial reports.
- Notarial documents.
- Administrative files.
- Delivery notes and logistics documents.
- Insurance policies.
- Medical and clinical reports.
How does document integrity verification work?
Although implementations may vary, the technical process follows a standardized sequence that ensures the detection of any unauthorized alteration since the document's creation:
- Issuance or generation of the document: The document is created in digital format (PDF, XML, etc.). Always in a secure environment and often using certified systems.
- Application of advanced or qualified electronic signature: A digital signature with eIDAS standards is applied, linked to the signer's identity through qualified certificates.
- Insertion of a timestamp: A certified trusted service provider (TSP) adds a legally valid timestamp, which proves when the document was signed.
- Digital fingerprint generation: A unique hash value is calculated from the document's content. Any subsequent changes will invalidate this fingerprint.
- Secure Verification Code (SVC): A unique identifier, usually alphanumeric, is generated, allowing real-time validation of the document's integrity on a verification portal or API.
- Real-time validation: Any user can enter the CSV or upload the document to a public or private platform to confirm that its content has not been altered and that all signatures and stamps are valid.
This flow is fully automatic, immediate, and scalable, ideal for high-volume sectors such as banking, insurance, or public administration.
Key aspects of document integrity verification
The effectiveness of document integrity verification services does not depend on a single technology, but on the synergistic combination of methods and controls. The methods and tools used to verify document integrity are varied, so that different aspects are analyzed in order to certify that the documents are valid.
What methods are used to verify document integrity?
Integrity verification combines cryptographic techniques, automated analysis, and regulatory standards to ensure that a document has not been altered since its issuance. The methods most commonly used in digital and regulated environments are described below:
- Secure Verification Code (SVC): A unique identifier that allows the authenticity of a document to be validated through an electronic headquarters or validation platform. It is widely used by public administrations and regulated companies.
- Documentary KYC and KYB: In financial environments, integrity verification is integrated with KYC processes, where customer identity documents are authenticated and checked to ensure they have not been tampered with.
- OCR: Used to digitize and extract text from scanned or image documents, but combined with cryptographic validation techniques. It can detect inconsistencies or alterations.
- Computer Vision: Artificial vision tools analyze visual patterns in physical documents (such as ID cards or passports) to detect signs of forgery (incorrect ink, absence of holograms, etc.).
- Qualified electronic signature: This is one of the most robust integrity mechanisms. An advanced or qualified electronic signature guarantees the identity of the signer, the integrity of the content, and non-repudiation.
- Time stamps: These guarantee the exact date and time of a digital event with legal validity, essential for documents with legal deadlines such as invoices or contracts.
What technologies guarantee document integrity?
The integrity of digital documents is supported by technologies that detect any unauthorized alterations and ensure their authenticity over time. Among the most robust and widely adopted are:
- Cryptography: Cryptography is the technical basis of document integrity. Hash algorithms such as SHA-256 generate a unique digital fingerprint of the document.
- Digital fingerprints: Any modification, no matter how small, alters the digital fingerprint, allowing manipulations to be detected.
- Blockchain: In some cases, integrity is reinforced by blockchain, recording immutable and decentralized evidence.
Practical applications: Who needs this service and why?
Ensuring that digital documents have not been altered is a growing requirement in regulated environments and trusted transactions. Document integrity verification cuts across multiple sectors.
Regulatory compliance and document compliance
Companies subject to regulations such as GDPR, AML, MiFID II, PSD2, or SOC 2 must demonstrate that their documents have not been altered. An automated integrity verification system not only facilitates audits but also prevents penalties.
Financial sector and insurance
Banks, fintechs, and insurers process millions of documents annually: contracts, credit applications, policies, and claims. Real-time verification with CSV and KYC reduces fraud and speeds up digital onboarding.
Public administrations and notaries
In Spain, the promotion of electronic administration (Law 39/2015) requires that electronic documents have guarantees of integrity and authenticity. Digital notaries, the electronic Civil Registry, and tax procedures depend on qualified signatures and time stamps to offer 100% digital and legally valid services.
Logistics and transport companies
Transport invoices, cargo certificates, customs documentation, and waybills must be verifiable to avoid delays, fines, or disputes. The integration of CSV and electronic signatures into logistics platforms allows for complete traceability and regulatory compliance with eCMR (Electronic Convention on the Contract for International Road Transport).
What to consider when hiring a document integrity verification service?
The choice of provider directly impacts your organization's legal security, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliance. Before choosing a provider, it is essential to evaluate the following aspects:
- Do not rely solely on visual reviews: Integrity must be based on cryptographic evidence, not human evidence.
- Evidence storage and traceability: The system must retain logs, hashes, and timestamps.
- Use of certified and up-to-date technologies: Avoid obsolete or non-auditable solutions.
- QTSP-EU providers: It is essential that the provider is a Qualified Trust Service Provider according to eIDAS.
- Verify that the CSV is unique, non-reusable, and has an expiration time: This prevents impersonation or fraudulent reuse.
- Scalability and automation: The service must integrate with internal systems via APIs.
- Avoid static solutions: The service must be continuously updated to counter new fraud techniques (deepfakes, PDF manipulation, etc.).
Regulations governing document integrity verification
The integrity of electronic documents is subject to a broad and evolving regulatory framework, combining European regulations, national legislation, and international standards. The main legal and technical references are detailed below.
How does eIDAS (and eIDAS 2.0) regulate document integrity?
The eIDAS Regulation (EU) 910/2014 defines the requirements for trust services, including:
- Qualified electronic signature.
- Qualified electronic seal.
- Qualified time stamp.
eIDAS 2, which will gradually come into force from 2026, will strengthen interoperability and require greater security from providers, especially in digital identity and document verification.
For their part, the KYC and AML directives (such as the 6th AML Directive) require financial institutions to verify the authenticity of identity documents using robust technical methods, excluding mere visual inspection.
What does Spanish legislation say about electronic documents?
- Law 39/2015: Establishes that electronic documents are fully valid if they guarantee authenticity and integrity.
- Law 40/2015: Reinforces the legal framework for the public sector.
- Royal Decree 203/2021: Develops the use of qualified electronic signatures and seals in the administrative sphere.
What international standards support document integrity?
- ISO/IEC 27001: Information security management standard.
- ETSI EN 319 102-1: Defines digital signature formats (PAdES, XAdES).
- NIST SP 800-106: Guide for the validation of digital signatures in the US.
- GDPR: Requires that documents containing personal data be protected against unauthorized alterations.
Tecalis document integrity verification: Main tools
Tecalis does not use a single document integrity tool, but rather a complete ecosystem of combined technologies, allowing for extremely robust and flexible control.
Its capabilities include:
- Qualified electronic signature with QTSP-EU certification: Fully compliant with eIDAS and allows the generation of documents with full legal validity.
- Secure Verification Code (SVC) generation: Unique, secure, and verifiable in real time via API or public portal.
- Biometric validation and advanced KYC/KYB: Includes analysis of identity documents using OCR, computer vision, and NFC reading (for DNIe 3.0 and electronic passports).
- Qualified time stamps: Provided by a certified TSP entity, with legal time traceability.
- RESTful APIs and SDKs: Enable rapid integration into banking, administrative, or logistics systems.
- Auditing and digital evidence: Every event is recorded in an immutable log, ready for legal or regulatory audits.
This approach is ideal for companies that must strictly comply with KYC, AML, eIDAS, and legal audit regulations, as well as those seeking maximum security without overburdening processes.
Benefits of using document integrity verification services
Implementing a professional integrity verification service brings multiple strategic advantages. The most notable and important are:
- Ensuring document authenticity: Eliminate doubts about the origin and content of digital documents.
- Protecting against fraud and forgery: Drastically reduce the risks of impersonation, manipulation, or use of expired documents.
- Facilitate the validation of legal documents: Any third party can verify a document in seconds, without intermediaries.
- Saving time and effort in manual verifications: Automating manual review and validation processes, with error rates close to zero.
- Build trust in document exchange: Customers, partners, and regulators trust a transparent and verifiable system.
Why is it essential to combine digital signatures, CSVs, and automation?
True effectiveness lies in the synergy between qualified electronic signatures, time stamps, and CSVs. While the signature guarantees the identity of the signer, the time stamp records the exact moment, and the CSV allows for public, simple, and secure verification without exposing the entire document. This triad is at the core of a modern document compliance strategy.
Final recommendations for a document compliance strategy
Robust document management requires control, technology, and constant updating. These actions help maintain integrity and regulatory compliance. Below are the keys to strengthening your document compliance strategy:
- Integrate verification from the source of the document, ensuring that integrity and authenticity are guaranteed from the moment of creation.
- Automate evidence and auditing, reducing manual errors and facilitating ongoing regulatory compliance.
- Use certified providers that offer legal guarantees, legal certainty, and alignment with regulatory standards.
- Periodically review applicable regulations to adapt to legal changes and avoid compliance risks.
- Opt for modular and scalable solutions that allow you to grow and evolve alongside the organization's digital processes.
Conclusion
Document integrity verification services are no longer a complementary feature: they are a strategic requirement for any organization that operates in digital environments, seeks legal certainty, and must comply with the highest standards of document compliance.
With technologies such as Secure Verification Code (SVC), qualified electronic signatures, and time stamps, it is possible to build reliable, efficient, and fully legally valid digital processes.
