The concept of establishment of electronic archive in public administration

Brzica, Hrvoje. (2018). The concept of establishment of electronic archive in public administration. PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Information Science.
(Poslijediplomski doktorski studij informacijskih i komunikacijskih znanosti) [mentor Stančić, Hrvoje].

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Abstract

The aim of this PhD thesis is to develop a model of the information system for the long term storage of electronically signed documents within public administration domain. For the purpose of building the model, the referent theoretical model for the long term storage of electronic information objects - OAIS is elaborated. The responsibilities, components and the functional entities of the mentioned model are described. Theoretical findings in connection with public key infrastructure (PKI) are covered because of the technologies and concepts that support the confidence in electronic records: digital certificate, electronic signature, advanced electronic signature, certificate authority (CA), registration authority (RA), electronic timestamp etc. The EU Directive 1999/93/EC on a Community framework for electronic signatures was derrogated in the EU area by eIDAS regulation (EU Regulation no. 910/2014). The influence of the eIDAS regulation is far-reaching for the legal regulation of the elements for the longterm preservation of electronically signed records. The regulation laid out the concept of the qualified trust server provider (for the certificate issuance, timestamps, etc.). Certain formats of advanced electronic signature are thoroughly covered. Such signature formats enable longterm preservation what makes these formats particularly interesting. The processes of development and validation of advanced electronic signature are described in detail. The term Proof of Existence (PoE) of electronic signature is recognized as key for this thesis. Studying the area of the long-term integrity and authenticity preservation of electronic records with electronic signatures four strategies of preservation are covered: the removal of electronic signatures, keeping track of electronic signatures within the metadata, recording electronic signature validity within the blokchain and the preservation of electronic signatures. The preservation of electronic signatures was a challenge for this thesis because it is often implicitly defined within legal regulations. The concept of electronic public administration is thoroughly covered (the term, phases, mobile public administration, sectors). To have a better understanding of the importance of archives in the electronic public administration the context of electronic public administration in the European Union and in the Republic of Croatia is described. The author took part at InterPARES Trust research project that was based on the analysis of electronic public services. Different aspects of public e-services are analyzed, form the point of this work the results from the area of electronic records long-term preservation are especially interesting and as such are elaborated in this thesis. Furthermore, the availability of services and components based on the public key infrastructure in the Republic of Croatia that can be efficiently used for signing and long term-storage of electronically signed document infrastructure development is investigated. Finally the analysis of efficacy of electronic public administrations according to numerous methodologies is presented. A detailed analysis of different aspects of electronically signed documents (interoperability, legal regulation, preservation time period, long-term storage standards) is made. The term electronic document as a substitute for official paper documents issued by public administration is elaborated. Croatian and foreign legal regulations are analyzed. As a preparation for the long-term storage of electronically signed documents model an analysis of successful e-archive implementations from Croatia, Germany, Italy, Austria, Lithuania and Estonia is made. One referent model for the long-term storage is elaborated and the results of the E-ARK research project are analyzed. Based on the findings from the analysis of successful practices and referent models the author built a model of the information system for storage of electronically signed documents. The developed model is based on OAIS reference model. An important part of the above mentioned model development is the elaboration of preservation of the proof of existence term. The use of RFC 6283 (XMLERS) standard for the Evidence Record Syntax is recommended. On top of that the use of qualified trust service providers for certificates and for timestamps is key for this model development. Qualified timestamp also takes the meaning of an archive timestamp. The developed model implies signature renewal before an expiration of the validity of the algorithms used. The main purpose of the signature renewal is to insure the verification of completeness of already signed documents. Additionally, timestamps can lose their validity as time passes so new timestamps must be acquired in time. The solution for the electronic document long-term preservation is suggested so that technological implementation supports legal regulation. Document formats for this model are suggested as well as the usage of the advanced electronic signature format. The formats from the AdES family of signatures are proposed: XAdES, CAdES, PAdES. At the end of this thesis the suggestion to set up an infrastructure for the long-term storage of electronically signed documents in the Republic of Croatia is given.

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