» Note: For Part 1 of Mr. Gingrande's article, Click HERE. Additional complications
Because preservation efforts in the analog world conceive the work as a physical artifact, archivists were forced to change their thinking radically when it came to maintaining legal objects in digital form. The latter requires the archivist to see information not as a physical thing but to perceive it instead as a disembodied collection of data. This concept, unfortunately, does not square up with keeping the status of digital information as evidence. Maintaining digital evidence longevity entails more than keeping a true copy of a digital object over time. The true copy also must retain its unaltered content in an unbroken chain of custody that addresses data preservation and the accuracy, reliability and durability of the hardware and software systems involved. From a legal perspective, meeting chain of custody requirements for a digital object is not any harder than, say, meeting those for DNA or for a bullet collected at the scene of a crime. The issue is one of certification rather than replication because ensuring the chain of custody for digital content does not involve an additional act of copying or physical transformation. It simply requires that any change in safeguarding the digital object must be authenticated and recorded in order for it to be introduced as evidence at a later date. However, this problem cannot be solved by digital means alone. It requires activity outside the digital realm that documents when a change of custody has taken place — or certifies it has not. This mandate can make preserving digital evidence more difficult — but no more so than preserving DNA or keeping a lethal bullet undisturbed in its original condition. The micro-etching solution
Today there is at least one high-tech answer to the problem of preserving digital evidence. Ironically, it requires converting the original digital content into an analog one and then storing that version forever. The solution involves micro-etching, a technology exclusively licensed by Norsam Technologies after it was adapted by Los Alamos Labs from gallium-ion beam micro-circuitry FIB machines to that of etching text and analog items. The Labs specifically developed micro-etching technology in order to store data for the federal government's nuclear waste storage program that had a congressional mandate of 10,000 years and had to be impervious to the electromagnetic effects of nuclear weapons.
Norsam uses their micro-etching techniques to manufacture a high-density archival product called HD Rosetta that can store over 100,000 pages of analog objects — and their digital renditions - from microfilm, original documents or other media onto a 2.8" metal Permafilm disk out of which low-cost distribution copies can be made. The final analog output is human-eye readable but, since it is etched on a molecular scale using ion-beam technology, it requires a specialized viewer to read. The micro-etching solution ultimately saves a lot of time, labor and money by eliminating the need for digital refreshing, migration or emulation and the risks associated with those preservation activities. In a way, HD-Rosetta constitutes the ultimate "blue-collar solution" solution because, in a way, it is simply a variant of ordinary printing in which raster images are republished on a molecular scale using ion-beam transfer technology. The selection of metal — platinum, iridium, etc. — determines durability. Including a digital rendition of the analog content turns the Permafilm disk into a modern-day Rosetta Stone. A thousand years from today, if there were no viewer available, an electron microscope could be used to view the data, and the availability of the binary code would provide a means for digital translation and replication. When tested at times up to 65 hours, the disks exhibited little or no degradation for temperatures up to 300o C (570o F). If they were stored in an inert gas atmosphere, it is expected that they would resist degradation at temperatures above 300o C (570o F). Results of exposure and electrochemical tests indicate that the Permafilm disc had a high resistance to corrosion in saltwater, tap water and marine air. After 15 weeks of exposure, no pitting was observed for any of the environments, and the text appeared virtually pristine. To date, the Norsam alternative seems to be the best solution to the problem of digital longevity, but in its role as evidence, certain additional mechanisms would still be required to ensure that a proper chain of custody prevailed over a disk's statutory lifetime. Chain of custody issues, however, have long been worked out by the courts. For example, locking up a Permafilm disk in a state-of-the-art bank vault could provide an ironclad answer to the problem. Micro-etching technology still is a bit pricey, so it is not suitable for all interested parties. But for now, it provides a conceptual, if not always affordable, solution to the problem of ensuring the longevity of digital evidence.
ARTHUR GINGRANDE is a partner of IMERGE Consulting in Lexington, MA and nationally recognized expert in ICR, forms processing and document automation. He is also a practicing attorney who specializes in electronic discovery, regulatory compliance and intellectual property law. For more information, visit www.imergeconsult.com or email gingrande@gmail.com.
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