Time stamping authority

Aleksander Pejčić (2010) Time stamping authority. EngD thesis.

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Abstract

This thesis deals with the field of timestamping, digital signing and cryptography in general. Content is divided into two main parts, first being the overview of standards and technology behind timestamping. The second part deals with trusted timestamping authority as an entity, which offers timestamping services to outside enviroment. The need for this kind of authorities and their purpose is also explained. We present public key infrastructure (PKI) and various cryptographic standards and technologies. The central piece of this thesis is a presentation of RFC 3161 standard that defines the way, technology and data structures that are needed for timestamping any kind of digital document. The shortcomings and limitations of RFC 3161 standard are also presented. We also present multiple ways of offering timestamping services over internet. At the end we present the software for implementing trusted timestamping authority, that was made as a part of this thesis.

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