Certification of Trustworthy Digital Repositories Arnold Rots Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

IVOA Interop Sep ahr: TDR Certification 2 of 7 The Need for Certification Trust level of users is still reasonably high, but is bound to drop At some point users will want to know whether a service is “serious” and not fly- by-night Serious web services will need a mark of trustworthiness

IVOA Interop Sep ahr: TDR Certification 3 of 7 The Smithsonian Institution SI comprises 13 musea and 9 research institutions – and a zoo The museum units have discovered the digital world beyond virtual museum tours – for research and preservation purposes Issues of authenticity, preservation, and trustworthiness are being pursued

IVOA Interop Sep ahr: TDR Certification 4 of 7 TRAC OAIS Reference Model (ISO 14721) contained and item “Accreditation of Archives” RLG and NARA set out developing a “Trusted Repository Audit & Certification: Criteria and Checklist” (see also David Giaretta’s talk at ADASS) Covers three main areas: Organizational Infrastructure Digital Object Management Technologies, Technical Infrastructure, and Security

IVOA Interop Sep ahr: TDR Certification 5 of 7 Future Developments RAC Working Group: moving TRAC toward ISO standard; there will be changes There will likely be levels of certification User communities – if not funding agencies – will start asking for certified repositories –NASA and SI already require ISO certification

IVOA Interop Sep ahr: TDR Certification 6 of 7 Certification and the VO My assessment is that many of the major VO repositories will move toward TDR certification IVOA has categorically refused to serve as “data police” However, TDR certification would give users some level of confidence

IVOA Interop Sep ahr: TDR Certification 7 of 7 Authentication Authenticity has a very different meaning depending on whether one deals with physical or digital objects Proof of authenticity will become an issue RXTE archive: –SHA (NIST FIPS 180-1) message digests of all FITS data products are recorded and made available –Tool to calculate SHA MD is provided –I am not aware it has ever been used, but it is simple and cheap to provide this service