Long-term storage

According to document type and legal requirements it might be necessary to store digital documents for decades. Therefore, we need the option to prove even in a few years time that the process of the actual transfer from an analog document to a digital file (scanning and quality assurance) was realized with a procedure which was valid at that time. It must also be possible to prove that the cryptographic procedures which were used for the protection of integrity were also valid at that time.

This requires the use of a hash archive / long-term archive via a hash tree. The SecPKI server provides automatically this long-term archiving by storing hash values and time stamps in such a tree and by re-signing them in regular intervals.

The BSI (German federal office for IT security) also demands an appropriate long-term archiving for electronically signed documents which take the guideline TR 03125 of the BSI into account.

These guidelines consider, for example, national and international standards as well as objectiveness and independence of platforms and manufacturers. Conditions for components and modules as well as information on the development of respective components and interfaces are also mentioned.

The guidelines also include recommendations for suitable architecture and formats for data, documents and archiving/storage.

(See BSI TR-03125 Evidence records of cryptographically signed documents)

Substitute scanning and signing (e-records)