ISO/TR 17068: 2017 was first developed as a Technical Report, now is published as an International Standard. The standard specifies requirements for a TTPR to support the authorized custody service, in order to ensure provable integrity and authenticity of the clients’ digital records and serve as a source of reliable evidence.
As digital records are the inevitable by-products of various business activities in digital systems, there is an increasing need to secure the authenticity and legal admissibility of digital records during their period of use and retention. It is internationally agreed that digital records cannot be denied legal recognition merely on the basis that they are in digital format. Despite this, it can be very difficult for an organization to assert that its digital records are authentic and able to act as effective evidence of business actions over a long period. In many cases legal admissibility of digital records managed by organization's records systems cannot be ensured. As a result, there is a growing need for services by neutral third parties which guarantee these characteristics for digital records.
One method of protecting these digital records is through the use of a Trusted Third Party Repository (TTPR). A third party is an independent individual or organization, separate from the direct interests of mutual parties that acts as an intermediary when two parties exchange digital information in a secure manner. Society and governments shall be in a position to trust the third party.