Definitions
In an X9.95 trusted timestamp scheme, there are five entities: the time source entity, the Time Stamp Authority, the requestor, the verifier, and a relying party.
- Time source entity - Most countries have an official source of time and this has been codified over the last hundred years through any number of Mutual Recognition Agreement's and Legal Metrological Agreements (see http://www.oiml.org for more information on Legal Metrology). Why this is important is now that the Internet has made it possible to reach directly into the laboratory that operates the official source of time for that jurisdiction, the many layers of "middlemen” who stood between the end-user and the source of time are now gone. As such, time that can be shown as traceable to the specific national measurement institute or master clock of that jurisdiction is the only source that provides the approved "Time Calibration Source" for X9.95. Examples include NIST in the US and Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM). Other regulatory frameworks also require that time that is moved through the Network Time Protocol ntp is properly certified and authenticated meaning unauthenticated use of time from any provider will fail X9.95 requirements for obtaining time in a provable manner.
- Time Stamp Authority (TSA) - The issuer of timestamps, which can be internal to an organization or a third party or external (as in an Internet based service). The TSA receives its provable "trusted time" from one or more reliable time sources and generates the timestamps requested from it according to the X9.95 scheme.
- requestor - The entity requesting a timestamp.
- verifier - The entity that verifies a timestamp. A verifier can be a relying party, regulatory body, or entity that employs a third-party verification service.
- relying party - The entity receiving the timestamp. The relying party uses the time stamp token in operations.
Read more about this topic: ANSI ASC X9.95 Standard
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