Electronic signatures for long-lasting storage purposes in electronic archives.

Communication and co-operation in healthcare and welfare requires certain Trusted Third Party (TTP) services describing both status and relation of communicating principals as well as their corresponding keys and attributes. Additional TTP services are needed to provide trustworthy information about dynamic issues of communication and co-operation such as time and location of processes, workflow relations, and system behaviour. Electronic signatures based on asymmetric cryptography are important means for securing the integrity of a message or file as well as for accountability purposes including non-repudication of both origin and receipt. These electronic signatures along with certified time stamps are especially important for electronic health records (EHR), electronic archives in general, and other typical purposes of a long-lasting storage. Apart from technical storage problems (e.g. lifetime of the storage devices), this paper needs to look for mechanisms of e.g. re-signing of messages, archive details, or whole archives.