Methods of generating a verifiable audit record and performing an audit

摘要

A method for associating data with documents that aid in the subsequent auditing of those documents. The invention in one embodiment further provides methods for auditing the documents. The associated data includes information for verifying the document's authorship, as well as for verifying that the document has not been altered. The associated data may further include information for verifying that the document's existence at a certain time. By associating verifiable authorship data, the invention provides methods for retrieval of all of a specific author's documents from a collection of documents.