Third-Party Witness to any Data

Provide yourself with strong legal evidence that your statement, record, or work existed when you know it did. The e-TimeStamp is a trusted digital certificate, backed by a rigorous implementation of international standards, for a data file's existence at a point-in-time.

 

For $.40, how can you afford not to give yourself proof?

Key Advantages:

See how a Third Party Witness applies to businesses like these:

 

Our customers include:

Anyone with intellectual property such as ideas, research, formulas, algorithms, books, teaching materials, etc.

See the related subject: What types of files can be timestamped?

Below is a list of professions that can benefit from e-TimeStamp. Some of the professions have an attached description that can been seen by clicking on the title

 

  Accountants    Inventors
  Architects   Musicians
  Corporations   Non-Disclosures
  Doctors   Researchers
  Engineers    Small Business Owners
  Entrepreneurs   Software developers
  Graphic Artists    Writers

 

We continue to get mail from our users and are surprised by the diversity of uses for this product. This web page will be updated as we incorporate their experiences.

Yes, using e-TimeStamp retains complete confidentiality: Only the file's fingerprint is sent over the Internet. From the fingerprint, it is not possible to discover the contents of your file. (additional information at How does e-TimeStamp Work)
  e-TimeStamp is truly versatile: any file on your computer can be timestamped.

That is one of the benefits of our new Digital Age; So many different kinds of things are captured in their digital form. To list a few:
 
  Word Processing documents   Music Clips & Wave Files
  Artwork, Images, Photographs, and Video   Web Pages, Software source and executables
  Financial records   Digital Models

The digital timestamp was defined by open standards as part of the technology called Digital Signatures, or PKI. DigiStamp uses this accepted method and then adds an external audit and certified hardware to provide a trusted web-based service. The result is strong evidence to prove that your computer files are authentic.

 

In general, electronic records are legally admissible in the United States if they can be reliably shown to originate with systems that provide accurate results.  The accuracy of our records is supported by the code signing event and HSM birth ceremony which every timestamp can be traced back to, and which exist in public record due to the testimony of auditors.  The code signing event, when the code used in every SecureTime HSM was locked down with multiple digital signatures, included a thorough review of our source code by 2 auditors. Their testimony indicates that our code correctly implements RFC 3161, an IETF standard for the evidence we create.


In the United States, "E-SIGN" is a federal law that gives electronic signatures, contracts and records the same validity as their handwritten and hard copy counterparts. (The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, 2000). The ESIGN law provides guidelines to eliminate legal barriers to using electronic signatures for signing contracts and storing documents. The law promotes uniformity in electronic contracting nationwide by pre-empting inconsistent state laws. Many of those laws are derived from the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act ("UETA"). The DigiStamp services are consistent with these guidelines. More information on E-Sign is here.

Company compliance with government and industry regulations - DigiStamp operates with compliance to e-signature practices set forth in 21 FDA CFR-11 and regional requirements like eIDAS (Electronic Identification and trust services). DigiStamp acting as a trust service provider, we produce electronic time stamps through use of advanced electronic seals. The medical industry is focused on two sets of regulations called HIPAA, FDA CFR-11 and GxP. Details here

Additional laws define the legal environment for DigiStamp services:
18 U.S.C. 1343 Wire Fraud
18 U.S.C. 2701 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA)
18 U.S.C. 2510 regarding electronic communications
18 U.S.C. 1028, Fraud and related activity in connection with identification documents and information

We suggest that you discuss with your attorney the specifics of your situation and we publish a legal counsel disclaimer here.

Consider that large corporations have used this technique for years as part of their proof of intellectual property rights. Now, due to the Internet technologies, this service is more universally available.

Core service of PKI standard digital timestamps

DigiStamp uses specialized encryption hardware that is certified by the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) and provide tamper detection against physical and electronic attacks, ensuring the integrity of the private keys used to sign the timestamps. The hardware and the external audit process are described here.

The associated public key used to verify the timestamp is freely published on this web site and through digital certificate authorities. However, there are no copies of the private key and DigiStamp employees never have access to this key. With this design, any attempt to access the private key by tampering with the system results in the private key within DigiStamp’s server being destroyed. The lost private key is not a problem because timestamps are verified with the public key. A new secure server with private and public key will then be created for new timestamps.

The secure hardware also contains the timestamp clock, which cannot be adjusted to create invalid timestamps and which is securely synchronized with an external atomic clock. Redundant, geographically-separated servers are used to ensure continual access to DigiStamp’s service.

 

Integrity over longer periods of time

When you get a PKI timestamp: you keep your data and your e-Timestamp; you have third-party proof of "when and what". Anyone can verify the timestamp’s authenticity using standard PKI software tools and no need to contact DigiStamp (or does DigiStamp even need to be in business). This is the normal use of digital timestamps as legal proof.

Now we add the Archive to the above process for the purpose of "long term archiving". For this, DigiStamp also keeps a copy your e-TimeStamp in an Archive. The Archive will perform technology renewals so we add time to the longevity of the proof. You probably won’t need the Archive, but some documents have a very long life spans. Consider your own Document Retention Periods or Library Archive Policy. More details described here.