Validating Notebooks & Notes

Every Forensic Note and Forensic Notebook is Digitally Signed by a Digital Signing Certificate issued by GlobalSign, a Certificate Authority (CA). By default, Adobe Reader / Acrobat do not have knowledge of this certificate, which results in the warning "At least one signature has problems".

To properly validate your Forensic Notes and Forensic Notebooks, follow the steps outlined below. This will add the Digital Signing Certificate to your list of Trusted Certificates. These steps only need to be completed once on each computer viewing Forensic Notes and Notebooks.

Step 1 - Signature Panel

1. Click on "Signature Panel"
2. Click the dropdown menu next to "Validate All"
3. Click on "Validate Signature"
4. Click the "Signature Properties..." button

Step 2 - Signature Properties

The following menu shows the properties of the Digital Signature. As shown, the Forensic Note has not been modified since it was Digitally Signed.

1. Click the "Show Signer's Certificate..." button

Step 3 - Certificate Viewer - Summary

The following menu shows further information related to the Digital Certificate.

1. Click the "Trust" tab

Step 4 - Certificate Viewer - Trust

The following menu shows that the associated Digital Certificate is not trusted.

1. Click the "Add to Trusted Certificates..." button

Step 5 - Add Trust Settings

This menu allows you to set the Trust level for the Digital Certificate associated with Forensic Notes and Notebooks. To properly validate, you only need to ensure that the following two options are selected:

1. Use this certificate as a trusted root
2. Certified documents
3. Click "OK" to save changes

Step 6 - Validate Signature

Now that the Digital Certificate is trusted within Adobe Reader/Acrobat, the Forensic Note or Notebook must be re-validated as it will continue to show errors until completed.

1. Click on menu icon next to "Validate All"
2. Click on "Validate Signature"

Step 7 - Valid Signature

The Signature Panel should now show the following message: "Signed and all signatures are valid"

View List of Trusted Certificates - Adobe Reader

To view the list of Trusted Certificates within Adobe Reader:

1. Click "Preferences..." within "Edit" menu
2. Click "Signatures"
3. Click "More..." button within "Identities & Trusted Certificates"
4. View list of Trusted Certificates