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Timestamping services can only guarantee exactly what they are meant to: that a specific file has been irrefutably stamped at a specific trusted time and day. However, timestamping is in most cases a technology / protocol rather than a product in itself, which means that in most cases it needs to be implemented and integrated with existing tools in the organization, thus adding complexity. If trustworthiness is needed for the applied timestamp, it needs to be authenticated with an external Trusted Third Party. Finally, timestamps were designed for processing files (or documents) rather than fractions of a file or document. In practical terms, this means that an audit file such as a log cannot be timestamped before it has been finished, leaving an unsecured time gap from the moment the file has been created until the moment it is timestamped. Furthermore, since there is no way of knowing if a file has been modified before applying the timestamp, if a undetected tampered file is sent for time stamping it can be even more harmful, since it will produce a false positive. The Kinamik Secure Audit Vault can act as a trusted third party within the organization’s walls, applying internal timestamps. Furthermore, the most differentiating aspect is the fact that it processes files as they are generated, adding the integrity information to the file itself at the event level in the case of a log file.
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