Security and Authenticity of Digital Records

LIS 389C.15, unique number 45940

Instructor: Patricia K. Galloway

Class meeting location: SZB 468

Class meeting period: Tuesday, 12:00-3:00 PM

Office: SZB 566

Office hours: Tuesday, 9:00-11:00 AM, or by appointment

Office telephone: 232-9220

Email: galloway@gslis.utexas.edu

Teaching assistant: Lori Eichelberger

Office SZB 445

Office Hours: Thursday 1:00 - 3:00 PM or by appointment

Email: lkeich@gslis.utexas.edu

Course Description

This course will deal with two main themes. First we will consider what it is that we are attempting to secure: archival authenticity and especially what it means in the digital environment. Included under this topic is a consideration of the historical meaning of authenticity in archival thought, from foundations in the physical-record environment to current considerations introduced by electronic records. We will consider the notions of records as representations of legal actions and as fulfilling other functions, the meaning of "copy" in the digital environment, and the requirements for establishing digital provenance. Second, building upon the ideas we have discussed about what authenticity is, we will learn about the main ways that the authenticity of archival electronic records can be secured in a repository setting, and we will experiment with implementing some of the technological solutions. This topic will include message digest, digital signature, watermarking, and encryption methods, as well as means of providing physical security and securing supporting computer systems.

Objectives

1. To understand documentary authenticity in the digital environment, in theory and practice: what it is we are trying to preserve.
2. To understand the kinds of threats to authenticity that exist and what should be done about them.
3. To be able to formulate the security element of a long-term preservation plan that addresses the authenticity requirements of records use.

Texts

Authenticity in a Digital Environment (Council on Library and Information Resources, 2000) (available at the Coop for $26 in paper form; also available online at www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub92/contents.html)

Readings: Available through Electronic Reserves

A special issue of The Information Society, “Authenticity, Social Accountability, and Trust with Electronic Records,” is due to be published in November (isue 17-4), and we may use one or more of the articles from it.

Assignments

Class participation (20% of grade): Students will be expected to read assigned readings and come to class prepared to discuss them critically.

Three-page essays (20% of grade): Two three-page essays are designed to guide you in uncovering for yourself some of the available literature and issues that you will need to understand in order to draft the Authenticity Protection Plan (see below). You will be expected to treat these assignments as formal essays using properly-attributed sources where appropriate, but the focus of these essays will be on your own critical thought about the issues addressed.

Laboratory work (20% of grade): The electronic records program has a separate “playpen” server at its disposal; students will be assigned passwords and will be expected to install secure shell software on their home computers if they plan to do classwork from home rather than from the GSLIS lab. In this class we will use the server during November to establish a secure repository, accession items into it using techniques that document their status upon accession, establish audit procedures to ensure that changes can be perceived, migrate some items to a different software environment, attempt to attack the repository and alter the materials held in it, diagnose changes made both by controlled migration and by wilful damage, and attempt to document and/or mitigate it. For lab work performed in the classroom, students will be expected to have experimented with assigned tasks and software according to handouts supplied and should be prepared to participate on the computer in class.

Authenticity Protection Plan (40% of grade): The aim of the readings, discussion, and laboratory experimentation will be to assist students in the preparation of a plan for the protection of the authenticity of the materials held in a fictional repository. A representative catalog of digital objects to be preserved and a set of specifications for the initial computing environment will be supplied. Students will build upon this to recommend authenticity criteria, requirements, and tests for different types of digital objects. These recommendations will then be supported by a plan for appropriate security measures and preservation practices to protect the authenticity of the digital objects held by the repository, according to an outline that will also be supplied.