Digital time stamping system based on open source technologies

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Metrology
• Information Security

Background:

• Digital time stamping is crucial for legal and accountable record-keeping.
• Existing systems may not meet stringent metrological requirements or utilize open-source flexibility.
• National time metrology laboratories require reliable and compliant time stamping solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To detail the development and testing of the BALTICTIME digital time stamping system.
• To validate the system's compliance with legal and accountable time stamping requirements.
• To assess the system's applicability to hardware used in national time metrology laboratories.

Main Methods:

• Development of a digital time stamping system utilizing LINUX-UBUNTU, OpenTSA, OpenSSL, and MySQL.
• Comprehensive testing of the system's functionality and performance.
• Evaluation against regulatory requirements for accountable time stamping.

Main Results:

• The BALTICTIME system successfully meets all regulatory requirements for legal and accountable time stamps.
• The system archives time stamps, ensuring accountability.
• The current implementation can issue over 10 digital time stamps per second.
• The system is compatible with hardware commonly used by national time metrology laboratories.

Conclusions:

• BALTICTIME offers a robust, open-source solution for digital time stamping.
• The system is suitable for governmental, institutional, and personal use, particularly in metrology.
• The system's performance and compliance make it a valuable tool for ensuring time-stamp integrity.