From Digital Diplomatics to Digital Forensics (original) (raw)
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From Digital Diplomatics to Digital Records Forensics
2010
Fifteen years ago, Elizabeth Diamond described the archivist as a forensic scientist. In the past few years, several archival writers have referred to professionals responsible for keeping digital records as trusted keepers or custodians. Undoubtedly, in the digital environment, record professionals are increasingly called to assess and preserve the authenticity of the records they are responsible for, and to act as neutral third parties. But, are they qualified to fulfill this role? This article aims to begin identifying the body of knowledge that a trusted record professional needs in order to assess the trustworthiness of digital records and ensure that their continuing authenticity can be demonstrated, if required, at any point during their life cycle. To do so, it presents some of the concepts developed by the InterPARES Project in the area of diplomatics of digital records; compares them with the relevant concepts of a relatively new discipline called digital forensics; discus...
Testing Our Truths: Delineating the Parameters of the Authentic Archival Electronic Record
The American Archivist, 2002
Based on the work of the first phase of the International Research on Permanent Authentic Electronic Record Project (InterPARES 1), this paper argues that emerging considerations specific to electronic records necessitate that the archival community delineate mechanisms for establishing, maintaining, and certifying the authenticity of preserved and reference copies of electronic records. The paper reviews how the InterPARES 1 Project identified such mechanisms through the conduct of a series of case studies of electronic information and record-keeping systems. The paper places a discussion of the case study data collection, analysis, and outcomes in the context of the quest and rationale for effective methods and a research design that would allow InterPARES researchers to discern the parameters of the electronic record and what supports a presumption of its authenticity. I n t r o d u c t i o n Aut hor Timothy Garton Ash opines of historical facts that: Like the materials used in a collage, these pieces of evidence have different textures: here a fragment of hard metal, there a scrap of faded newspaper, there again a wisp of cotton wool. Reporters, investigators and historians will
The Search for Criteria and Methods for Selection of Authentic Electronic Records
Document numérique, 2000
The InterPARES Project is a collaborative international research initiative bringing scholars in several disciplines together with representatives of archival institutions and private industry to develop the knowledge required for the long-term preservation of authentic electronic records. The information technology revolution has dramatically altered the way in which governments, private organizations, and individuals carry out their daily activities. Technological obsolescence, storage media fragility, and the capability of electronic systems to manipulate data challenge our capacity to guarantee the long-term preservation and authenticity of electronic records. This paper will report on the work of the Appraisal Task Force of InterPARES to characterize the concepts, principles, and methods for effective selection of electronic records. RÉSUMÉ. Le Projet InterPARES est un projet de recherche international qui regroupe des chercheurs de plusieurs disciplines avec de représentants d'institutions d'archives et d'industries privées, en vue de développer les connaissances nécessaires à la conservation à long terme des documents d'archives électroniques authentiques. La révolution des technologies de l'information a fondamentalement modifié la façon dont les gouvernements, les entreprises et les individus conduisent leurs activités quotidiennes. L'obsolescence des technologies, la fragilité des supports de stockage et la facilité de manipulation des systèmes électroniques défient notre capacité à garantir la conservation à long terme et l'authenticité des documents d'archives électroniques. Cet article expose le travail du groupe de projet d'InterPARES sur l'évaluation pour caractériser les concepts, les principes et les méthodes d'une sélection efficace des documents d'archives électroniques.
Digital Records Forensics: A New Science and Academic Program for Forensic Readiness
Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law, 2010
This paper introduces the Digital Records Forensics project, a research endeavour located at the University of British Columbia in Canada and aimed at the development of a new science resulting from the integration of digital forensics with diplomatics, archival science, information science and the law of evidence, and of an interdisciplinary graduate degree program, called Digital Records Forensics Studies, directed to professionals working for law enforcement agencies, legal firms, courts, and all kind of institutions and business that require their services. The program anticipates the need for organizations to become "forensically ready," defined by John Tan as "maximizing the ability of an environment to collect credible digital evidence while minimizing the cost of an incident response (Tan, 2001)." The paper argues the need for such a program, describes its nature and content, and proposes ways of delivering it.
Introduction: Opportunities and Challenges for Electronic Evidence
Law, Governance and Technology Series, 2018
Beyond the different and varied rules that each Member State adopts regarding the admissibility and development of evidence, including digital evidence, elements that in any case must be guaranteed are its relevance and its authenticity with respect to the case being examined. However, these requirements are far from easy to achieve, taking into account some peculiar characteristics of digital evidence, for example, its fragility (easily alterable, damageable and destructible) and its immateriality, namely, the difficulty in associating particular evidence to a physical object: Often it is confused with the device that contains it and therefore closely linked to the concepts of changeability and volatility. This means that the lifecycle of digital evidence must always be accompanied by documentation, always kept up to date, constituting the so-called chain of custody, i.e., the document that describes in detail what happens to digital evidence from the moment in which it was identified as evidence until its presentation before the judge in the trial phase, more specifically, the person who took possession of it to preserve its authenticity, when, where and how, and in what manner. The issue of digital evidence is necessarily interdisciplinary in that it affects different areas: the law in its national, European and international forms, digital forensics, computer science, sociology of law and diplomatics. The latter discipline, perhaps the least known among those mentioned, is focused on "studying the forms that official, legally probative or even constitutive documentation has taken over time".
The American Archivist, 2001
This paper focuses on the need for a systematic redefinition of the archival methods and tools required for building electronic recordkeeping systems. The analysis, which has been developed for archival education in Italy, is carried out through an examination of the historical evolution of the main functions for records creation (classification and the registry system) and the evaluation of their effectiveness in the newly developed and technologically advanced records systems. Special attention is given to the risks posed by new Italian and European rules on electronic records. These rules are based on the use of digital signature as the only guarantee for a record's reliability and authencity. It is argued, however, that the digital organization of the records, even if updated and improved, cannot be efficient if it ignores the traditional functional requirements for recordkeeping. 9 Cesare Paoli, Diplomatica (Florence: G.C. Sansoni, 1942) 18. 10 Alessandro Pratesi, Genesi e forme del documento medievale (Rome: Jouvence, 1979), 25.
The protection of the integrity of electronic records: an overview of the UBC-MAS Research Project
1995
Le projet de recherche en cours au Programme de maitrise en ttudes archivistiques de I'Universitt de la Colombie-britannique vise h identifier et 2i dtfinir les conditions requises pour la crtation, la manipulation, et la sauvegarde de documents informatiques sQrs et authentiques. Cet article brosse un tableau du projet de recherche en soulignant ses objectifs et sa mtthodologie, en rtsumant son analyse conceptuelle, et en prtsentant ses principales conclusions.
The authenticity of electronic records: the InterPARES approach
2004
The InterPARES Project began in 1999 with the purpose of developing the theoretical and methodological knowledge essential to the permanent preservation of authentic digital records and to formulate model policies, strategies, and standards capable of ensuring that preservation. Its first ...