Hoan Do and Professor Gorden Romney, Information Technology
In a world where digital information can be so easily altered it is essential to protect the original content of digital files from unauthorized changes. This is especially important with digital images such as maps or historical documents. If these images are provided to the world for research or public use then proof must be provided showing that no alterations have been made and that the image contains exactly what it should. The DS3 project will create a digital signature system that will uniquely sign digital image files and provide a process to validate each file according to the individual signature. The importance of this project is that it will provide reliable security and protect valuable data from unauthorized changes and tampering. By generating a digital signature for an image file, the data can be verified against that signature at any time to ensure that no changes have been made. Any changes in the file will be detected during the verification process.
The Digital Signature Signing Server (DS3) project has created a digital signature system that processes a batch of digital image files, one file at a time. Each file is digitally signed, providing a unique and encrypted representation of the digital content. Furthermore, the digital signature of each file may be validated in order to substantiate the integrity of the original content.
The significance of the DS3 project is that it provides a process for the owner, or archivist, of a digital asset to preserve the exact content of any digital asset at a given instant in time (t0) by generating a digital signature of the file (this is referred to as the Digital Signature Process). This process can be thought of as producing a unique fingerprint of the digital asset. Any subsequent changes to the asset content, malevolent or otherwise, may easily be detected, helping to preserve the integrity of the asset. By generating a digital signature of an image file, the current fingerprint (t1) can be compared to the original fingerprint (t0) to ensure that no changes have been made (this is referred to as the Digital Signature Verification process). If the fingerprints do not match then the integrity of the digital asset has not been preserved. The DS3 project provides a successful solution to maintaining the integrity of digital image content.
The importance of my project is to research different methods of archiving secure data, in this case the digital signatures and private keys, and retrieving data from secure source. Securing digital signatures and private keys is one of the most important parts of the entire DS3. If a digital signature is changed, the verification process cannot be executed. In addition, my project will involve with designing a DS3 database, a backup and restore process, and an interface with multiple clients’ systems. The objective is to keep original data asset archive with the clients’ systems (HBLL, Dr. Parry, and Dr. Long).
Our team has been able to use the ORCA grants to obtain the necessary hardware and send representatives to meetings. We built a working system for Dr. Long and hired other people to transfer the archives to a repository that DS3 can access to. Overall, this was an invaluable learning and practical experience. All of our team have graduated and worked on different fields. This experience, however, will be a long lasting memory for all of us.