Excess records? We can just delete them, right?

Every day, HR departments receive, generate and accumulate huge volumes of data in the form of documents like job postings, employment applications, CV’s, reference checks, testing data and personnel files. Not to mention payroll records and disciplinary records. When the hard drive becomes crowded, it would be great to dump some of these files we feel we don’t need anymore, but a plethora of government and industry regulations require that we retain certain documents and records for a certain period of time and for well after the termination of an employee’s contract.

How to identify records for retention and destruction

Depending on country or region, the laws can vary. So it’s a good idea to examine compliance laws in your jurisdiction to understand the requirements for preserving electronic documents that could become part of court proceedings if a lawsuit were to be filed. This way, you can identify the records you need to keep, and plan for the timely destruction of those that are redundant and outside their retention period.

So where does Autoprotect come into this scenario? With Autoprotect, a digital fingerprint of the document’s creation and modification is attached and authenticated independently from the organization, so that you can prove its creation date. By using Autoprotect on HR files, you can prove the age of any document and use this information to qualify it for retention or destruction. Should it come to a legal proceeding, Autoprotect will prove the age and legitimacy of all documents involved. It’s the failsafe way to prove your HR department has complied with document retention laws.

Test Drive Digiprove now!

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Sarah Lennon

Original online content benefits from Autoprotect

Chester is a small (so small there are no traffic lights!) but very historic village that is located in the Green Mountains in the Williams River Valley, which is in the south of Vermont. The town has a population of 3,000 people in around 56 square miles, which makes for a beautiful and peaceful place to live. Chester is located in a highly scenic area with mountains and river valleys to explore, while also hosting not one but two historic districts. This means that Chester is a prime tourist location, something the people of the town want to show off and take advantage of. And they’re doing it by leaps and bounds through their website. The site is full of original and themed content, so it makes sense to protect their work by using Autoprotect.

Protect all kinds of content with Autoprotect

The site is comprehensive and full of engaging content that, understandably, the site’s owners wish to protect. Autoprotect has been employed to this end. The site features sections on lodging, things to do, facilities, dining, and more. In addition, the site hosts a great blog that chronicles upcoming and past events. This content can be Digiproved using Autoprotect with a simple plugin install. It’s perfect for protecting original website content.

Want to learn more about protecting online content with Autoprotect? Get in touch today.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Sarah Lennon

Ever heard the phrase “document, document, document”? If you work in HR, you probably have. Still, many HR staff still haven’t been shown how to keep records of important meetings and disciplinary conversations. And this shows when it boils down to legal cases. When employees are hauled into court in order to testify against an employer, what they say and whether you can prove or refute those facts will be the difference between a win or a loss.

During a legal case, anything less than perfect, trustworthy record keeping can make sloppy documents the chief evidence in court. Great HR managers will know that HOW they document is more important than just documenting everything. It’s vital to do it in a systematic way, and to be able to prove their legitimacy.

Allison West, a former employment law litigator in the US, says, “Sloppy documents- particularly emails- can help an employee’s lawyer show discriminatory intent. Documentation should be prepared at all times for a fact-finder’s eyes (e.g. judge, jury or government agencies)”.

Here are three kinds of information that are created sloppily

Evidence to support decisions – in legal cases companies often fail when there is little or no evidence documented to support decisions to discipline or terminate.

Evidence of warning – it is vital for documentation to be kept to prove that employees have been given appropriate notice of issues.

Poorly vetted documents – that may contain personal attacks or comments that are subjective: these should be avoided.

Many HR professionals don’t know that poor documentation can generate just as much liability for damage as having no documentation at all. It’s important that this documentation is deemed trustworthy in a court of law too, and this is where Digiprove Autoprotect comes in.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Sarah Lennon

Digiprove, an early stage Irish technology company specializing in digital content authenticity and integrity, and Kinamik Data Integrity, a venture-backed start-up company that brings advanced real-time data integrity technologies and innovative data assurance solutions, announced today that they have reached an agreement to collaborate on a new assured service offering. This joint solution has been designed to address the specific needs of medium to large organizations where complete trust and e-evidence fulfillment is required, not only for protected digital content but also for any logged action that can affect the digital content. The Digital Asset Management Market is circa $350m growing to $560m by 2014.

“It’s exciting that two young and innovative companies can collaborate on new kinds of solutions,which are available now for Beta Clients,” said Cian Kinsella, founder & CEO of Digiprove. “Our patented SaaS-based ‘Proof engine’ technology and Autoprotect product lead the way in digital content protection & integrity, while Kinamik’s advanced tamper-evident data solutions lead the pack when it comes to unmatched integrity controls.”

“Kinamik and Digiprove are two companies with a laser focus on solving issues related to assured information” said Mark Searle, Kinamik CEO. “I am confident that this collaborative effort will help change the way customers perceive the importance of integrity of any digital content and I am looking forward to delivering the results of the synergies created by both our companies working together.”

About Kinamik Data Integrity

Kinamik Data Integrity™ specializes in providing real-time data integrity technologies and innovative data protection solutions. The company’s flagship product, the Kinamik Secure Audit Vault (kSAV), centralizes and preserves sensitive data as it is generated to create irrefutable records and to provide actionable data you trust^SM. Its kDSS (Kinamik Data SafeSealer™) product is a new embedded software offering for OEMs. Realtime data protection provided by Kinamik™ adds evidential weight to stored information to meet the most stringent compliance, scalability and other data assurance requirements.

For more information please contact Roberto Blanc – Marketing Director

http://www.kinamik.com

About Digiprove

Digiprove specializes in securing trust in digital content of any type or format using a patented process over the internet that does not require target content to be transferred to Digiprove, thus ensuring confidentiality. Unique digital fingerprints and certificates are created and audit trails secured so that the provenance of digital content can always be verified. Selfprotect is the core on-line subscription service, Autoprotect automates the process as  a background task, Webprotect automates protection of Web & Blog content, Embedprotect is a Software Development kit for ISV’s & SI’s to rapidly integrate Digiprove’s technology and Brokerprove (powered by Digiprove) enables Financial Advisors go fully digital and remain compliant.

A data protection policy is not only for the benefit of full time employees. It could be used to protect contract workers, agency staff and other kinds of workers too. In the HR department, it is particularly important that employee data is protected; especially considering it’s the department that all major employment decisions go through. This kind of data requires high security and proof of authenticity.

How do we go about formulating a data protection policy?

A lot goes into designing a data protection policy, but here are a couple of points to get you started. A general data protection policy should:

• Identify a person within the organization who will have responsibility for ensuring that the employer complies with data protection regulations. This person will usually be a senior figure in the HR department.

• It should ensure that employees are fully aware of any data held about them, and that they understand how this data could be used and disclosed. It is normal practice that an organization will use personal data like salary and pensions, and this will be held on an electronic device. The depth of this data could go further, for example employers may keep health records for reference.

It is vital that employee data held on organizational systems can be transparent and trustworthy. That’s where Autoprotect comes in as an asset to the HR department in maintaining legitimacy of files, and supporting their data protection policy.

The above are just two points about what a data protection policy should enforce. For further information, make sure to keep your eyes on our blog.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Sarah Lennon

Autoprotect is based on a new, patented technology that will change the way we think about digital documents. It allows you to produce and manage files and content in an efficient, secure and compliant manner. By using Autoprotect, employees can assure trust in the process of creating and managing digital documents and records. Security and integrity of all digital content is assured. Here are some examples of Autoprotect technology in action:

Autoprotect in Procurement & Purchasing

The procurement process benefits greatly from Autoprotect because integrity can be secured easily, proving a legal, fair and transparent process. Autoprotect ensures the integrity of EOI, ITT, and RFQ which also maintaining the integrity of receipt, evaluation and decisions relating to proposals. Tender contracts and commercial contracts can also be secured in this manner.

Autoprotect In The Finance Industry

The finance department maintains processes and will provide information that is essential to the operational success of the company. Obviously it is vital for financial documents to be rock-solid, as these documents are more often than not used as the basis for decisions, internally & externally. Additionally, the finance industry is governed by statutory and regulatory requirements, which the business has to conform to.

Spreadsheets and office productivity tools are used to create vital documents within the finance department… how can we prove their authenticity and integrity for the auditors? When the creation date, editing dates, times and content need to be trusted, Autoprotect is the simple solution.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Sarah Lennon

There are many challenges in creating effective and efficient searches of digital data for discovery purposes and one important area relates to securing the evidence (content) once discovered for later use. Whether the process is manual or automated using one of the many tools, it is essential that the authenticity and integrity of discovered content is secured so that when presented at a later date it can be beyond challenge. Digiprove provides a simple, secure and confidential technology that applies a unique digital fingerprint to the content and issues a digital certificate for every file or folder regardless of content type (Text, Image, Audio, and Video). The content remains fully confidential in that there is no requirement to send the content to the secure “Proof Engine” server, this is a core part of the Digiprove patented process. There are three products within the Digiprove portfolio that can be used depending on the eDiscovery methodology chosen.

1. Selfprotect, an on-line service that allows the manual selection of content to be secured and also allows the sending of secure emails.
2. Autoprotect, a small utility that runs in the background and automatically protects those files and folders identified as sensitive once set up.
3. Embedprotect, using a software developer’s kit, the Digiprove core function can be quickly integrated into your software.

How does it work – The steps that occur:

•   Calculate digital fingerprint of content

•   The content itself remains secret

•   Create certificate containing fingerprint and other identifying details

•   Digitally sign the certificate

•   Transmit signed certificate to recipient

•   Record in database

•   Embed in tamper-proof audit trail

Result: Creates absolute proof of content & time-stamp and provides independent certification of this

(Verification) Proving prior existence of content:

•   Using original source content:

•   Calculate fingerprint

•   Retrieve certificate (if required)

•   Compare fingerprint with that embedded in certificate

•  Verify integrity of signed certificate:

•  Check public key against known values

•  Check certificate chain to trusted CA

•  Verify digital signature using public key

Result: The original content is always verifiable & any alteration gives a negative indicator

Conclusion

The inclusion of a technology such as digiprove in your eDiscovery process strengthens the trust in discovered digital content and removes any potential ambiguity or challenge when presented at a later date.

Want to see for yourself how this technology works and how it could benefit your company? Test drive it here!

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Sarah Lennon

Employees and managers benefit from having trust in the integrity of HR communications and documents. In addition, the authenticity of documents can often come into question during legal proceedings, for example contract disputes. Autoprotect from Digitprove is a patented technology that allows digital data to be certified of its authenticity.

8 HR Processes that can be Certified with Autoprotect

In all of the below processes, data authenticity and integrity are paramount. In particular, the creation date, ownership, content and author are factors that readers expect to be authentic.

1. For new hires, the provision of the new employee with a signed contract and the relevant policies and procedures, often supplemented with induction programs will always benefit from some Digiproving authenticity.
2. The interview and selection process both internal and external can be subject to review upon reciept of a complaint from a digruntled candidate. Digiproving documents as the interviewer goes will give a trustworthy account of the process.
3. Legitimate documents come in useful during the termination process, should any questions be raised.
4. The Health & Safety process benefits from autoprotect: as each staff member is trained in company H&S policy, they can be officially noted down.
5. A tamper proof document can be useful during the time recording and management process
6. The employee performance management process is ideally documented with the use of Autoprotect, to avoid any questions at a later date.
7. Digiproving of all documents will prove highly beneficial during the grievance and disciplinary process.
8. After training, being able to identify without doubt the processes that each staff member went through will put the HR department in a strong position, in case of dispute further down the line.

Want to know how to secure the information in your HR department? Download our whitepaper here!

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Sarah Lennon

There is however one caveat – where there is a legal obligation to retain original documentation e.g. Financial Advisor needs to keep client instructions for 7 years, the electronic record can meet this requirement, provided that:

• there exists a reliable assurance as to the integrity of the information from the time when it was first generated in its final form, whether as an electronic communication or otherwise,
• where it is required or permitted that the information be presented— if the information is capable of being displayed in intelligible form to a person or public body to whom it is to be presented,
• if, at the time the information was generated in its final form, it was reasonable to expect that it would be readily accessible so as to be usable for subsequent reference,
• where the information is required or permitted to be presented to or retained for a public body or for a person acting on behalf of a public body, and the public body consents to the information being presented or retained in electronic form, whether as an electronic communication or otherwise, but requires that it be presented or retained in accordance with particular information technology and procedural requirements— if the public body’s requirements have been met and those requirements have been made public and are objective, transparent, proportionate and non-discriminatory, and
• where the information is required or permitted to be presented to or retained for a person who is neither a public body nor acting on behalf of a public body— if the person to whom the information is required or permitted to be presented or for whom it is required or permitted to be retained consents to the information being presented or retained in that form.

However Digiproving does have the following real advantages:

1. When added to electronically signed document at the same time the document is signed, it meets any statutory obligation in relation to retention of original documents
2. Offers an irrefutable assurance that the document has not been altered either accidentally or deliberately since its creation
3. Offers an irrefutable timestamp certifying the time of creation of the document (And location information if it is available on the device)
4. It meets the requirements for retention of records (In digital format), thus creating less dependence on paper records.

Items 2 & 3 are important because not only do they provide comfort to the receiving party (who must after all consent to the use of e-communications) of the integrity of the document, they remove all reasonable doubt (whether in a court case or otherwise) that a document could have been altered.  Other safeguards such as archiving and time stamping logs may be circumvented by any software engineer or gifted amateur, or indeed by malicious design.

Finally the legislation describes an “advanced electronic signature based on a qualified certificate”.  We are pretty certain this means what is usually referred to as a Digital Signature, based on PKI using CAs such as Verisign (such as what is implemented in Adobe and there are many examples like this I think An Post have something as well).  This has one particular legal advantage in that it is recognised as a witnessed signature, and appears to be a requirement in applying signatures to documents that require witnessing. Cryptographically it is a very secure solution.  However it comes with a major overhead – everyone who signs has to have a Digital ID (or digital certificate) from a recognised CA.  There is (as you would expect) a whole process involved in proving your identity to the CA, and of course an annual cost.  Despite massive promotion by companies like RSA and Baltimore in the late 90s this technology did not succeed.

Want to find out more information about just why your organisation should Digiprove – Talk to a Consultant today!

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Sarah Lennon

We know that the relationship between an organization and it’s employees requires best possible HR practices and compliance with employment laws and regulations. All of these communications and information resources are stored electronically in most offices. While this digital technology is highly convenient, it also poses a huge risk because it’s so easy to change in retrospect. Employees and managers in an organization need to be able to trust in the authenticity of digital documents, especially when this information can be called upon as evidence in a legal case. Autoprotect from Digiprove is a patented technology that allows digital data and online content to be produced in a secure manner with full authenticity.

When does Digiprove technology come in useful?

Autoprotect comes in handy in a number of situations. Take, for example, performance management. This process is all about getting the best out of our team members and it is a process that does require formal record taking along the way. These records are incredibly important to both the employees themselves and the managers that will use them to make vital business decisions. Trust in the authenticity of these documents is essential.

Health and safety takes priority in places of work, as organizations have a legal obligation to provide a safe place of work for their staff. Health and safety training for staff is vital in this context. Being able to prove that health and safety training was given for an employee by Digiproving is an asset. Furthermore, when an incident occurs, trustworthy incident logging with Autoprotect ensures that the organization is covered from a legal standpoint.

How does Autoprotect work in HR?

Autoprotect uses patented Digiprove technology to create trust in digital data that is being used by a staff member. By marking out sensitive data to the technology, it will be automatically Digiproved by our “Proof engine” server over a secure Internet connection. Your content remains confidential at all times. These documents can be very quickly verified online by using the “verify function”.

Autoprotect means indisputable proof. Isn’t that something your HR department could benefit from? Contact us here.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Sarah Lennon