Identity proofing in RON: credential analysis and KBA
Before a remote act, the signer's ID goes through credential analysis and the signer through a short quiz. Here is what each check is, what your state's rule asks of them, the quiz terms state by state, and the part that stays your decision. How platforms compare on these checks is under RON platforms.
Sources read
Fig. 1The two checks
Across a desk you look at the ID and the face. On a screen the law splits that into two automated checks, run by the platform or a service it uses, before you take the act. Virginia's Code defines both:
- Credential analysis
- “a process or service that independently affirms the veracity of a government-issued identity credential” Va. Code § 47.1-2
- Software examines the ID the signer presents remotely and checks that it is genuine and that its data hold together.
- Knowledge-based authentication (KBA)
- “an identity assessment formulated from public or private data sources” Va. Code § 47.1-2
- A timed multiple-choice quiz about the signer, built from data sources, that the signer should be able to answer and a stranger should not.
Identity proofing is the wider term (“a process or service that independently verifies an individual's identity”), and KBA is the method most rules name for it. Some states accept others: Pennsylvania lists biometrics beside credential analysis and KBA, Maine also a public key certificate; Colorado accepts a valid public key certificate or a trusted third-party verification in place of KBA.
Fig. 2What each state requires
Most of the rules read here keep two doors open that need no technology: you know the signer personally, or a credible witness vouches for them (Florida's names only personal knowledge). Past those, the combinations differ:
| State | Rule, in short | Cite |
|---|---|---|
| CO | credential analysis + KBA or alternative | C.R.S. § 24-21-514.5(6)(b) |
| KS | two identity-proofing types | K.S.A. 53-5a15(b)(1) |
| LA | Check your state's current rule | — |
| ME | two identity-proofing types | 4 M.R.S. § 1915(3)(A); 29-250 C.M.R. ch. 700, § 6(2)(J) |
| MD | credential analysis + identity proofing | Md. Code, State Gov't § 18-214(a)(1) |
| MO | credential analysis + identity proofing (per rule) | RSMo § 486.1145 |
| NE | credential analysis + KBA | 433 NAC ch. 8, §§ 010.03-010.04 |
| PA | two identity-proofing methods | 4 Pa. Code § 167.86(4) |
| FL | credential analysis + KBA | §§ 117.265(4), 117.295(3), Fla. Stat. |
| TX | credential analysis + KBA (third party) | Tex. Gov't Code § 406.110(b); 1 TAC §§ 87.41(d), 87.70 |
| VA | two of five methods (incl. credential analysis, KBA) | Va. Code § 47.1-2 ('satisfactory evidence of identity', 'knowledge-based authentication assessment') |
| WA | credential analysis + KBA | RCW 42.45.280(3)(a); WAC 308-30-300 |
The quiz, where the rule sets its terms
| State | Questions | Choices | To pass | Time | After a fail |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FL | 5 or more | 5 | 80% | 2 minutes | 1 more, ≤ 3 repeat questions |
| MO | 5 | 5 or more | 4 of 5 | 2 minutes | Up to 2 more within 48 hours, ≥ 2 replaced |
| NE | 5 or more | 5 | 80% | 2 minutes | 1 within 24 hours |
| TX | 5 or more | 5 | 80% | 2 minutes | 1 within 24 hours |
| VA | 5 | 5 | 80% | 2 minutes | Up to 2 more within 48 hours |
| WA | 5 | 5 | 80% | 2 minutes | 1 within 24 hours, ≥ 40% new |
The quiz is close to a national standard: five questions, five choices, a pass mark of four right, two minutes. The retake rules are where states differ, and they matter on a closing day when a borrower fails once. Missouri and Virginia allow two more tries within 48 hours; Florida, Nebraska, Texas and Washington one. Missouri's standard, with the demonstration it asks of a vendor, is on our Missouri page, and what a failed quiz does to a closing is in RON for loan signings.
What the notary still decides
The platform reports pass or fail. What you do with a fail is not the platform's call, and Florida writes the answer into the statute: if the methods cannot be satisfied, or the databases hold too little to authenticate the person, the online notary
“may not perform the online notarization”
- In Texas both checks are done by a third party, and the Secretary of State keeps no list of approved identity-proofing providers and points instead to its rule, 1 TAC chapter 87, subchapter H.
- In Washington you may not see or record the quiz questions or answers, so you rely on the pass or fail and on what you see on the call.
- Where you know the signer personally, the checks are not needed; record that in the journal as your evidence of identity.
- A signer abroad may hold no US credential; how the states on file handle that (Florida accepts a foreign passport) is in signers outside the US.
Fig. 3What stays out of the recording
The rest of what the recording must and must not hold is in RON session recording requirements. How each platform runs these checks, and whose service it uses, is in the platform comparison for signing agents and the guide to what state rules ask of a platform. Proofing settles who the signer is; your own side of the document is signed with a digital certificate, and those are compared in notary digital certificate providers.
Questions notaries ask
What is credential analysis in remote notarization?
Virginia's Code defines it as a process or service that independently affirms the veracity of a government-issued identity credential: the platform checks that the ID the signer presents is genuine.
How many KBA questions must a signer pass?
In the states read here that set terms, five questions with five choices each, 80% (four of five) to pass, within two minutes. Retakes differ: one in Florida, Nebraska, Texas and Washington; up to two more within 48 hours in Missouri and Virginia.
Can I go ahead if the signer fails KBA?
Not once the retakes your state allows are used up. Florida says outright that the online notary may not perform the online notarization if the identity methods cannot be satisfied.
Does Texas approve identity-proofing providers?
No. The Texas Secretary of State keeps no list of approved identity-proofing providers; the requirements are in 1 TAC chapter 87, subchapter H, and both checks must be done by a third party.
Related
- What state rules ask of a RON platformThe requirement rows every comparison on this site uses, explained once, with the state source for each.
- RON session recording requirementsWhat the recording must show, what it must not hold, the backup rule, and who may get a copy.
- RON technology providers on state lists: who sits on the mostOne table of providers against the state lists, dated, each linked to the state's own list.
- Texas online notary requirementsThe Texas path: commission, digital certificate, electronic seal, online application and record keeping.
- Florida online notary requirementsThe path to a Florida online notary commission and what the state asks of the notary and the RON service provider.