With the development of science and technology, electronic contracts have become a common form of contract in the business field. Some people may be worried that the content of the electronic contract that has been signed will be maliciously tampered with, so in this article, we will talk about whether the modification of the electronic contract will be discovered.
First of all, let's be clear: once an electronic contract is signed, any modification of its content can be detected and may result in the invalidity of the content, or even the entire contract.
This is due to the fact that Article 5 of China's Electronic Signature Law stipulates that "a data message that meets the following conditions shall be deemed to meet the requirements of the original form stipulated by laws and regulations: (1) it can effectively represent the content contained in it and can be retrieved and used at any time;(2) It can be reliably guaranteed that the content remains intact and unaltered from the time of final formation. However, the addition of endorsements to data messages and changes in form that occur during data exchange, storage and display do not affect the integrity of data messages. ”。
Article 14 of the Electronic Signature Law stipulates that "a reliable electronic signature has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature or seal." ”
What is a reliable electronic signature?An electronic signature is considered a reliable electronic signature if it meets the following conditions at the same time:
1) When the data for the creation of electronic signatures is used for electronic signatures, it is the exclusive property of the electronic signatory;
2) The data for the creation of electronic signatures at the time of signing are controlled only by the electronic signatory;
c) any alteration of the electronic signature after signing can be detected;
iv)Any changes to the content and form of the data message after signature can be detected.
In order to prevent electronic contracts from being tampered with, some electronic contract platforms have adopted multiple technical means:
1.Document solidification technology, which uses the international common hash value technology to solidify the original electronic file data, which can easily identify whether the file has been tampered with;
2.The third-party time retrieval technology is connected to the timestamp service provided by the joint trust timestamp service center to add time attributes to the electronic signature and effectively confirm the time when the contract is generated and the immutability of the document content
3.Blockchain evidence preservation technology, electronic contract and blockchain technology are deeply integrated, and digital fingerprint information such as the signing time, signing subject, and document hash value of the electronic contract will be broadcast to the respective nodes of all members of the "legal chain", and once all information is stored, no party can tamper with it.
If the content of the contract is to be modified, it should be solved by adding a supplementary agreement or abolishing the original contract and re-signing, rather than directly modifying the electronic contract. If we find that the electronic contract has been changed, we should immediately contact the parties who signed it to deal with it as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary disputes in the future.
In general, modifications to electronic contracts can be detected, and if discovered, may lead to the invalidity of the contract or even legal problems. Therefore, before signing an electronic contract, it is necessary to ensure that the content of the contract is accurate and avoid unnecessary trouble.