Agilent has integrated Surety's AbsoluteProof, a third-party timestamping service, into its OpenLAB ELN, providing substantial evidentiary support in the event of any legal challenge. A secure digital timestamp (i.e. trusted timestamp) verifiably seals a record, enabling its time and content integrity to be independently proven at any time. Additionally, researcher identity is captured and sealed alongside the content during the collaboration workflow, increasing the defensibility of the overall 'sign and witness' process.
'In the extremely competitive research market, documenting and securing research-based IP is critical for many of our customers,' said Bruce von Herrmann, vice president and general manager, Agilent Software and Informatics. 'With the integration of Surety's AbsoluteProof, our customers will have the ability to seal their IP portfolios and validate the exact date and time of creation, modification and implementation, thereby capturing and protecting their investments in IP.'
'Most traditional ELNs use timestamps from internal server clocks or digital signatures to prove the date and time of intellectual property creation,' added Tom Klaff, CEO of Surety. 'These processes can be vulnerable to tampering, and thus, are not always legally defensible. With Surety’s AbsoluteProof, Agilent recognised an opportunity to incorporate a substantially higher degree of data integrity protection into its applications. AbsoluteProof timestamps are independently provable, provide long-term integrity protection, and don't require an investment in heavyweight infrastructure. This translates into a significant cost savings for customers.'
