Purpose The short lifespan of digital signatures presents a challenge to the long-term preservation of digitally signed records. It can undermine attempts to presume, verify or assess their authenticity. This paper aims to investigate the challenges of the expiration of digital signatures in the context of digital archiving. Design/methodology/approach The paper identifies requirements for the long-term preservation of digitally signed records and compares them with the existing approaches. The characteristics, operational procedures and requirements of the technologies used for digital signatures are combined with the archival requirements to design a new model. Findings The paper proposes a new model of a blockchain-based system, which can be combined with any digital archive to assist the process of long-term preservation of digitally signed records. Practical implications The proposed model offers a new alternative to the current practice in the long-term preservation of digitally signed records, such as periodic resigning procedures or periodic wrapping of digitally signed records with archival timestamps. Originality/value The proposed TrustChain 2.0 model is based on previous research conducted as part of the InterPARES Trust project. It builds on TrustChain 1.0 by including digital signature certificate chain validity information in a blockchain thus avoiding the issues concerning records confidentiality and privacy information disclosure. The paper contributes not only to the development of archival science but also shows archival institutions on how to approach long-term preservation of digitally signed records.
When archiving a digitally signed document an issue arises once the certificate used in the signature expires (or possibly the certificate authority stops functioning). Once this happens, the signature can no longer be confirmed and tampering with the document is possible. This paper presents a model for long-term preservation of digitally signed documents using blockchain technology. The authors propose a semi-open system in which only certain institutions can create new entries but any interested party can view the records and confirm their authenticity.
Learning and teaching are considered to be the main activities in higher education. The environment in which these activities take place is rapidly changing and it is getting more and more oriented towards teaching with the help of the new technologies, namely e-learning system, relying not only on technical skills but also on motivation and contextualisation. In the paper, different views towards the quality of e-learning have been presented, and the research regarding the quality of the e-learning Omega system (Moodle) conducted at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb presented in relation to different European policies.
The authors divide their research in several phases. First, they conduct a literature review in order to identify relevant studies and theoretical papers covering the topic of governmental e-services. Then, they conduct an environmental scan in order to identify relevant governmental e-services in the EU countries. Further, the authors focus their research on eight European countries and conduct a deeper analysis of the implemented Government to Business (G2B) e-services. Research is centered on the eight G2B e-services. The identified e-services are firstly ranked according to their maturity level, and then analysed by using a developed questionnaire. The aim was to systematically collect enough information on the e-services in order to be able to conclude if the users may consider an e-service as responsible, reliable, accurate, secure, transparent and trustworthy as well as to conclude if an eservice addresses privacy issues, duties to remember, and the right to be forgotten. The comparative analysis of the identified G2B e-services in the eight European countries identifies weak spots of e-services and points them out in order for them to be improved. The identified gaps refer to the long-term service continuity plans, policies giving information on storage and preservation methods, long-term preservation of digitally signed records, use of clients' data etc. One of the by-products of this research is a check list which can be used by the users of e-services as guidance for establishing trust in an e-service they (intend to) use but it also can be used as guidelines by e-service providers. The authors conclude that not only the comparative study provides an insight into the state of development of G2B e-services in the investigated countries but it also reveals the areas of possible improvements in the context of establishing accountability and trust in governmental e-services in general.
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