Electronic archiving requirements in Italy

Digital Preservation of documents; what does it consist of?

The digital preservation consists of the certified long-term electronic storage of digital documents of all types. This electronic preservation service must ensure the authenticity, integrity and availability of the preserved documents, always complying with the most rigorous security standards. 
 

Substitute Archiving in Italy

Substitute Archiving was created with the primary aim of providing Italian companies with a regulatory framework that sets the guidelines for the digitization and electronic preservation of analog documents. Paper documents digitized and preserved according to these guidelines are guaranteed to be legally valid.

This framework forces Italian companies to have a document exchange platform which facilitates electronic storage in compliance with current legislation. This platform should help simplify the process of dematerialization of paper documents. All tax-relevant paper documents must be digitized and digitally preserved following the guidelines of the Substitute Archiving.

Substitute Archiving, as a law, seeks to enhance the value of the electronic document archived through a system that guarantees two conditions on a permanent basis: integrity, which certifies that the electronically stored documents have not been altered. And authenticity, which unequivocally identifies the natural or legal person as the author of any given document. Two processes are carried out to certify these characteristics:
 

• Qualified Electronic Signature: This signature is equivalent to the handwritten signature, with the same legal validity, in all countries of the European Union. The qualified electronic signature allows the identification of the origin of the data as well as the signee. In addition, the electronic signature provides the archived documents with the guarantees of integrity and authenticity required by the digital preservation standard. The qualified electronic signature service will often be provided by a Qualified Trust Service Provider. 

« ‘A Qualified Trust Service Provider is a technology provider that has the required certifications and the necessary technical capacity to provide electronic transactions with the required trust mechanisms: electronic signature, time stamping, etc.’»

• Electronic Time Stamping (Timestamp):  Time stamping is used to prove that a set of data existed and has not been modified since a certain point in time. As in the previous case, the timestamp service will normally be carried out by a Qualified Trust Service Provider who will certify the existence of the data as of a given date and time through this process. 

While it may be true that Substitute Archiving marks a before and after in the digitization of Italian companies, nowadays most of the documents are digital in origin. This is why the terms most commonly used today are ‘Digital Preservation’ or ‘Electronic Preservation’ as a rule, as they would encompass the preservation of all types of documents regardless of their origin.
 

eIDAS Regulation; what is it and how does it affect Digital Preservation?

In an increasingly digital Europe, citizens, companies and the Public Sector need a regulatory framework that provides security and legal certainty to the electronic activities that occur in public and private environments on a daily basis. 

These security mechanisms are contained in Regulation No. 910/2014, known as eIDAS Regulation (electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market), concerning electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market. 

The regulation has been in effect since July 1, 2016. The eIDAS Regulation lays the foundation for more secure electronic transactions between citizens, businesses and the Public Sector.

We can summarize the main dispositions of the regulation in three main points:

• It establishes a legal framework for electronic signatures, electronic seals, electronic time stamps, electronic delivery services and website authentication. 
• It regulates the figure of the qualified trust service provider (QTSP): from the security requirements required to fulfill this function to the auditing processes. A trust service provider is a natural or legal person who provides one or more trust services, either as a qualified provider or as an unqualified trust service provider. 

«Edicom is a qualified trust service provider for the creation of certificates, generation of time stamps, certified electronic deliveries, and long-term archiving»

• It determines the conditions under which countries of the EU must accept the electronic identification means of persons and companies belonging to other member states, thus guaranteeing interoperability. 

The eIDAS Regulation not only represents a breakthrough in electronic identification methods, but also drives the digital transformation of companies and administrations. The implementation of trust services puts electronic documents on par with analog documents, enabling the processing of electronic documents at source with the same validity as those traditionally issued on paper.  An important step towards efficiency in the digital era.

Applications of the Digital Preservation to standard: 

The digital preservation of documents is mandatory in the case of electronic invoices, as well as any other document with fiscal relevance. Among the latter, we find documents such as the PEC (certified electronic mail), contracts and documents signed with digital signatures or order confirmations, among many others. The most common are.

Preservation of Digital Electronic Invoices:

The storage of electronic invoices, as well as any accounting records, is mandatory for a period of 10 years from the date of issue.

Preservation of Digital Expense Notes:

The Digital Conservation standard extends to the declaration of expense notes and their supporting documents. Expense notes must be stored in the same way as invoices and their authenticity and integrity must be ensured.

Digital Preservation of signatures linked to documents subject to workflows of approval:

Some key documents are subject to approval processes in which one or more persons must be involved in order to have the guarantees and evidence that accredit conformity with their content. Commercial proposals, supplier invoices, labor contracts, contracts for the provision of services, etc. There are solutions on the market that facilitate the digitization of these approvals. Depending on the criticality of the document, these solutions would make use of more or less demanding requirements for its approval (electronic signature of platform, signature with recognized certificate, double authentication factor, etc.).

In these cases, it is not only critical to digitally preserve the approved document, but it is even more important to preserve the evidence of each approval made on it. This evidence generates a trace that, identified at a given moment by means of an electronic time stamp, provides greater guarantees in the event of possible discrepancies or disagreements.

« EDICOMSignADoc is the electronic signature document approval solution that, in conjunction with the services of the EDICOM Qualified Trust Service Provider, automates the digital storage of these documents together with the evidence of approval».

The complete sequence of these evidences is integrated in a report that, in turn, is signed by the trusted third party, constituting said report. This report is a key tool to record the steps or modifications a document has gone through from its issuance to its final approval. 

The obligation of digital preservation also extends to digitally signed documents, regardless of the solution used during the signing process.

 Digital Preservation of certified digital e-mail

PEC (Posta Elettronica Certificata) is the certified electronic mail. It is a system that allows sending e-mails with legal value equivalent to that of a registered letter. As they have a possible fiscal relevance, they should also be stored.

EDICOM Long-Term Archiving (EDICOMLta)

EDICOMLta (Long-Term Archiving) is the certified long-term electronic storage service developed and offered by EDICOM as a qualified trust service provider.

EDICOMLta is a certified platform for the safekeeping of electronic documents for the period of time required by companies or determined by legislation. It can store any type of document and in any format. 
 

This platform guarantees the availability, integrity, authenticity and security of stored documents. To this end, it ensures permanent access and retrieval of all the documents uploaded on the platform, as well as evidence management to demonstrate the integrity of digitally stored documents from a legal perspective. Digital evidence is a file that legally justifies an operation carried out on a document. 

« EDICOMLta is a certified electronic storage solution that preserves documents while maintaining their integrity and authenticity over time»

EDICOM’s active role as a qualified provider of trust services involves conducting ongoing audits of archived records, in accordance with international standards (XSADEsLT and ISO14641) and local regulations where applicable. All this with the aim of granting preserved documents the status of electronic originals with evidential value, making them valid before third parties and authorities. 

In the case of Italy, EDICOMLta complies with all requirements regarding digital preservation as a standard. Documents archived in EDICOMLta will have guaranteed integrity, authenticity and accessibility, always complying with the most demanding security standards.
 

Advantages of EDICOMLta

• Integrity and authenticity : EDICOM implements qualified signature and qualified electronic time-stamp systems, which comply both with the requirements established by the eIDAS Regulation for qualified trust services, as well as the requirements established by Italian law for digital preservation as a standard.
• Consultation and traceability : All electronic documents are classified and categorized on the platform based on metadata. This metadata makes it possible to define traceability between documents and facilitates immediate consultation and retrieval within the platform.
• Hierarchization of documents:  EDICOMLta makes it possible to preserve the complete cycle followed by each electronic document.
   
• Legal file: Electronic files are stored in EDICOM's Data Processing Center (DPC) under strict security measures.
• Document audit :  The electronic signatures and seals of documents are subject to periodic controls in order to maintain the attributes of integrity and authenticity.
• Accessibility and management: EDICOMLta permite a integração com os sistemas de gestão internos das empresas (ERP, CRM ou SCM, entre outros) ou com as soluções EDI e e-Invoice da EDICOM, automatizando o armazenamento desses documentos eletrônicos.
• Redundancy: EDICOM stores electronic files redundantly in two data processing centers (DPCs) to increase security and guarantee 99.9% service availability.