Digital Transaction & Process integrity (Creating certification & user confidence)

Digital Transaction & Process integrity (Creating certification & user confidence)

Personal & Business people carry out many of their daily functions on-line in this digital age, but how do suppliers of on-line information and services create greater confidence in the user so they can grow their business, create deeper engagement and increase the user confidence to carry out more critical transactions with your on-line service?  The answer is about creating more trust.

In the on-line world, how do we create this trust? The answer lies in ensuring there is a chain of authentic evidence in the process that delivers your service, and that the user of the service can independently verify this chain of evidence with an independent specialist in digital content assurance. OK so what does that mean for the user? On-line users of services are very familiar with the standard security processes and brands, e.g. passwords, user authentication emails, SSL, Norton, Secure payment systems such as Visa, Realex, etc. All these components go to building trust for the user. In addition some service providers go the extra mile and use more complex and expensive certified keys and encryption, though this often comes with an over-head for the user.

How can we improve that user trust & confidence?

There are three key areas that need to be addressed in a simple and cost effective manner:

1.       Source Identity Integrity & Authenticity

a.       Is this person, company or entity, who they represent themselves to be?

2.       Content Provenance & Integrity

a.       Is the content (Digital) the original, un-tampered and as issued?

3.       Verification of Identity & Integrity

a.       Can I confirm with one click 1 & 2 above?

For the supplier of on-line services & information whether they be process based or transaction based, the question is how can I build these characteristics into my software in a simple and cost effective manner?

For the User when using the on-line service, is it obvious and intuitive that any information and service I use on this web-site I can trust, and if I have a concern can I independently verify the provenance, Integrity & Authenticity with one click of the mouse?

How to build in trust and certification to your software?

Digiprove’s patented and certified technology is a unique way to quickly and cost effectively build in a traceable, certified and verifiable set of functionality. By use of one of the Digiprove products or quickly embedding the process using our software developers kit (SDK).

What can be achieved by embedding Digiprove in your solution?

The most important outcome is your on-line service and information is differentiated because it has independently verifiable credentials, enabled by Digiprove.

·         End user customers and embedded partners have independent verification of their identity and can use the ID-V logo on their digital certificates.

·         Each piece of digital content (Text, Image, Audio, Video, Data), can at any stage in the process be quickly certified by the Digiprove “Proof Engine” as an automated task. This creates an audit trail and independently verifiable certificate with the digital fingerprint, date, time and location which is undisputable evidence and proof of authenticity.

·         The ability for a user or receiver of the content to either on or off-line verify the provenance, integrity and authenticity of the digital content as well as the credentials of the originator.

The bottom line is by deploying Digiprove technology any Digital Asset which has a value whether financial, reputational, brand or compliance can have that value protected.

Embed Trust, Compliance & Protection in Software & Data

Introduction

Your software whether COTS or Bespoke brings to your client’s or your own organisation the benefits of automation and the flexibility of digital processes & content, these benefits are indirect when you consider the primary drivers are likely to be Improve Financial Performance, Customer or Citizen Service, or carry out tasks that would not be practical to carry out manually.

Software Applications or Information systems are central to the creation and flow of Information in every aspect of business life today, they support every function in the organisation and decision making at every level from the front line or shop floor up to the board room and for external parties.

Your business/organisation is providing these software products and IT solutions to your client’s/end user’s and they are central to their business processes, legal and regulatory compliance. So why is there so much emphasis on printing and signed paper records? The answer is “Trust”. Digital data & content can be easily manipulated accidentally or maliciously even with what would be perceived as good IT security. A professional malicious hacker can circumnavigate most standard security and the use of elaborate security solutions can be very costly and make usability an issue.

How do you bring trust to the digital content your application creates, handles or uses, in a simple cost effective manner? If your software ticks all the boxes below, then you have a compelling proposition, if you don’t tick all the boxes then don’t worry by doing a quick free integration of Digiprove technology or alternatively installing Autoprotect from Digiprove you can secure the trust of any user or 3^rd party in the information your solution provides:

þ Provenance of any digital content can be established (Origin)

þ Digital content can be verified as it is used or at any time on and off line (Tamper evidence)

þ Tamperproof & Auditable logs of content history (Life cycle events)

þ Content does not leave its operating environment (Remains Confidential)

þ Meets Legal and evidential requirements for eDiscovery, Spoilation identification and preservation.

þ Meets business and regulatory requirements for digital signatures, digital records, and Integrity.

þ Creates unique digital fingerprint and certification for any type of digital content.

What Value will the integration of Digiprove into our solution bring?

·         It enables your software solution stand out from the competition by ticking all the boxes above.

·         It enables trust and confidence for all stakeholders in the digital content integrity, its provenance is assured and any tampering identified.

·         It secures the evidential value of digital content for business decisions and for any 3^rd party investigation (which may include eDiscovery)

·         It will enable compliance with 3^rd Party requirements, such as regulators, government & auditors.

·         It will allow you operate without any paper in your process

·         It will differentiate your software solution.

How does Digiprove achieve this? And what is Digiprove’s evidence?

Digiprove is a unique patented technology process that without the need to transmit your digital content to Digiprove, creates a unique digital fingerprint of your digital file(s), it securely registers the fingerprint with the metadata such as owner, Date, Time, Location and creates an audit trail so that should the digital content be altered in anyway it will be evident on verification. Verification can be completed on or off line or can be fully automated using a component from the Digiprove Software Developers Kit.

Our evidence is that we already have over 5000 users and specifically using our SDK it has been integrated into software/solutions with applications in compliance such as Financial Services, Human Resource Management, Financial and legal. In addition The Georgia Technology Institute, the world’s leading authority on Digital Security has tested and verified Digiprove’s technology and here is what they say:

“… the process described in the patent does indeed provide a tamper-proof way to show that digital data has not changed since its timestamp. The process also provides a provision to validate any alteration made after it has been time stamped… the software does faithfully implement the patented 'Digiprove' process providing an authenticated method for establishing proof of existence and possession of digital content of any kind.”

Financial Trading Irish Development beyond the Efficient Market Hypothesis

Why Fractal Market Hypothesis is more relevant to the Efficient Market Hypothesis an interesting paper as an outcome of the collaboration between the DSP research group in DIT led by Dr Jonathan Blackledge and CEO of TradersNow who have taken the core Algorithm research and created a set of trading Algorithms for Foreign Exchange initially. These Algorithms give statistical advantage such as 73% exit efficiencies to FX Traders.

Paper

9 Software & IT Business Papers

The following papers were authored by Declan in the past and published when he was Founder/CEO of Insight Test Services & Sogeti (Capgemini). Papers may be downloaded at this link http://simplifyurl.com/xfa .

10 Hot Software innovations to Impact Business & Organisations Today

Software QA & Testing - Building World Class Capability

How IT can assist in Economic Recovery

What can business management learn from Agile Development techniques

10 CSF's to extract value from IT suppliers

The influential Test Business Team

Non Functional Testing

User Acceptance Testing "How to make it work"

Structures for Test Organisations "To centralise or Decentralise"

The 10 Hot Software Innovations to Impact Business & Organisations Today

The economic crisis has left Ireland and many other countries in a state of confusion with a constant uncertainty as to what will happen next and what the best steps will be towards recovery. Even with this doubt businesses have been able to identify opportunities through software innovations.

This report highlights the importance innovation has on economic growth for Ireland in the context of an international competitive environment and how Ireland compares. It discusses in detail the benefits that innovation has on economies, businesses and organisations with a main focus on the Top 10 Software Innovations of today.

How IT can assist in economic recovery

Declan Kavanagh, CEO of Sogeti, discusses how IT can contribute to economic recovery.

He contends that we must now focus on how, as a small open economy, we can take advantage of the international recovery which will gather pace in 2010.

Software QA & Testing - Building World Class Capability

Introduction to Sogeti Software QA & Test Credentials

There are 140 Sogeti Ireland professionals, of which approximately 60% are in the Software QA & Testing Business Unit. The success of Sogeti Ireland and the Group's test business is underpinned by its ability to provide complete solutions and services relating to software testing across the full Software Procurement and Development Life Cycle (SPDLC). At Sogeti, our people are considered thought leaders globally. In fact, in an increasing number of countries, our TMap® and TPI® open methodologies are the recognised test standard.

Can business management learn from Agile development

Declan Kavanagh, CEO of Sogeti, discusses how business management can learn from the techniques used in Agile development. This paper discusses similarities between traditional software development approaches and established management practices. It goes on to outline how Agile software development is being used to address the shortcomings of established development methodologies.

Based on this premise, the paper explains how the tools and methods used in Agile can be applied to create a flexible management system that is more responsive to the challenging modern environment.

	Extracting Value from IT Suppliers: 10 Critical Success Factors The challenging business environment and market uncertainty are resulting in a sharp focus on cost reduction and value for money throughout all sectors, public and private. In this white paper, Declan Kavanagh puts forward ten areas of focus that will have the immediate effect of achieving better value from existing and new IT suppliers.
	The Influential Test Business Team (Best Paper winner Eurostar 2006) Declan Kavanagh, CEO of Sogeti, contends that running your test organisation like your own business and implementing best practice business principles will significantly improve the performance of test and increases the visibility of its contribution in the organisation. This paper provides some tools and techniques for test managers to take steps to develop an entrepreneurial approach.
	Non-Functional Testing Non-Functional, or technical, testing can be broken into a number of areas organised by requirements type e.g. performance, usability, security. Declan Kavanagh, CEO of Sogeti, presents a useful overview of non-functional or technical testing in all its various forms.

UAT: User Acceptance Testing and how to make it work

The development and deployment of new software solutions to the end business user often stumbles at the final hurdle. When it comes to UAT, having a well structured approach and an appropriate level of business user involvement is critical to any projects successful roll out.

In this paper, Declan Kavanagh and Ken Brennock outline what you can expect from UAT and how to implement it most effectively.

Structures for test organisations - To centralise or decentralise

One of the most frequent questions that senior Sogeti staff are asked is 'What is the best structure for software testing to ensure delivery success?' There are many flavours and hybrids to consider.

Declan Kavanagh, CEO at Sogeti, offers his opinions on structures for test organisations.