CODEL: The Key To Digital Certainty

Codel Makes Instant Messaging Permanent & Durable

Financial services professionals are increasingly using Instant Messaging (IM) to communicate, but resort to email and then paper to record what needs to become permanent and admissible in a court of law. Codel satisfies a real need to make IM durable and so allow IM to form part of the deal transaction and compliance audit trail.

IM is attractive to the user because it is quicker and simpler than email, and it fits with behavior in a socially networked environment. What is needed is the permanent and admissible record of instant messaging communication.

How it Works:

The client IM application calls Codel each time an IM string is created and requests a digital fingerprint (codelmark) to be created for the selected piece of data. This unique codelmark, which cannot be subverted, is stored by the client with the original IM data so that it can be used for later verification purposes. Codel also stores the codelmark as an independent, trusted third party so that the IM data can always be verified as authentic. Simple scripts can augment this service to transcribe the IM strings to other digital formats that are compatible with the users' records keeping procedures. For ease of future verification, codelmarks are stored in perpetuity in a searchable database. The Codel service can either be used simply to notarise IM communications or can be extended to notarise other records generated by the operations and processes of the enterprise. Codel secures its own integrity, and that of the data registered with Codel, through a series of audit trails, the pinnacle of which is a unique codelmark that is published daily in the Financial Times.

Compliance:

Codel's searchable database of notarised digital objects, and the open publication of audit trails, puts the integrity of codelmarked data into the public domain without loss of confidentiality. It is this information assurance process that makes it possible to deliver entirely electronic business processes. Codel is the only service available today that provides a comprehensive solution to the exploding problem of information assurance in the digital age, and which addresses the real requirements of regulation, such as the Distance Marketing Financial Services Directive and BS 10008:2008 - Evidential Weight and Legal Admissibility of electronic Information.

HSBC

Never before has it been so important for financial institutions to secure the provenance and integrity of information. In a rapidly digitizing world, with paper giving way to electronic communications, it is vital that digital information is known to be authentic and uncorrupted.

"Codel's technology provides a unique mechanism for the securing of digital data that reduces dependency on paper documentation and increases the sustainability of our operations."

 Andy Button - Divisional Technology, Banking Manager, HSBC