Evidential value

Evidential value aims to demonstrate before a competent authority that an electronic record presented as evidence has not been altered since its creation and that the person it originates from can be reliably identified.

Arclib makes it possible to answer the three key questions a judge will ask when examining electronic evidence: When? Through timestamping. What? Through the cryptographic identifier. And who? Through the corporate directory.

Arclib’s absolute traceability

Arclib systematically records in its logs all actions that can affect the integrity of digital archives consultation, modification, migration, and every other operation occurring throughout the archive’s lifecycle.

Contrary to popular belief, an archive is not “dead” once stored. A digital archive is very much alive, and Arclib, thanks to this flawless traceability, enables your organization to present indisputable elements of proof in the event of a legal proceeding.

To make these logs easy to read and use, we have created, at our clients’ request, a proof document that summarizes and synthesizes the archive’s lifecycle. Arclib’s absolute traceability and proof document are therefore directly at the service of your legal risk coverage.

A unique cryptographic identifier at the service of evidential value

To guarantee evidential value, Arclib activates a series of technical components.

Timestamping ensures the exact creation time of the archive and can be either non‑costly (internal) or paid, depending on whether a certified third‑party timestamping service is used. In the case of paid timestamping, a trace is kept on the operator’s servers, so that the system does not act as both judge and party in a legal procedure.

Combined with timestamping, the calculation of a digital fingerprint (hash) assigns a unique cryptographic identifier to the document free if it is a mere hash, or paid if it is attached to a certified electronic signature. This guarantees that the document presented later is the original, unaltered version.

The corporate directory, the third pillar of evidential value

When an electronic document is presented as evidence, the judge must be able to verify that it was created by the right person and in the appropriate role. The archiving service must therefore be able to guarantee the identity and function of the archive creator.

Arclib is integrated with the corporate directory and can attach, for each archive, the identity of the person who created it as well as their role within the organization.