National foreword

This Published Document is the UK implementation of ISO/TS 24574:2025.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee IDT/1, Document Management Applications.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

This publication is not to be regarded as a British Standard.

Compliance with a Published Document cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This Published Document was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 July 2025.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).

ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO had not received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at www.iso.org/patents. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 171, Document management applications, Subcommittee SC 1, Quality, preservation and integrity of information.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

Introduction

As part of their activities, public organizations and private companies increasingly use digital content, whether it is produced by these organizations or by others. Digital content includes documents, data, images and sound that can be referred to as digital objects. These can be natively electronic or result from the digitization of printed documents.

To meet legal or management requirements, organizations and companies are expected to use trusted technology to ensure the integrity over time of all types of digital content. Thus, there is a need for software that can ensure the integrity, confidentiality and availability of the digital objects over time, including office documents, PDF files, scan results, JPEG pictures, etc.

This document defines the minimum functions of a digital safe:

maintaining the integrity, confidentiality and availability of digital objects over time;
preserving the chain of custody;
managing retention periods or freeze status, making it impossible to delete digital objects during a determined period;
defining the minimum elements to allow the transfer of digital objects between two different digital safes;
defining the minimum elements of traceability of the software operation;
managing replication of digital objects;
ensuring the sustainability of business operations, business continuity and disaster recovery;
defining encryption requirements.

This document is limited to the functions of integrity, traceability, confidentiality and availability of digital objects of any kind. It does not address the sustainability of digital objects (i.e. the component does not control and convert the formats in which digital objects are stored).

In order for users to have confidence in their electronic safe, this software should have the same basic functions and maintain a common minimum of technical metadata, regardless of the software publisher. These fundamental elements are also necessary conditions to ensure interoperability between several electronic safes.

This document is intended for:

software developers or integrators who wish to develop or integrate a digital safe;
service providers, such as trust service providers of digital storages, who are looking for software to support their services;
software publishers who want to have a repository to develop digital safe software;
consultants and auditors who wish to have a reference document to build or audit an archiving system.

This document is intended to complement other ISO documents that deal with electronic archiving. Annex A provides a list of these documents and their link to this document.

1 Scope

This document specifies the minimum functional requirements of digital safe software in order to ensure the integrity, confidentiality and availability of the digital objects it stores.

This document does not address system environments for the operation of the digital safe, such as physical security (fire extinguishing systems, armoured doors, presence detectors, etc.), power supply security (generators and transformers) or telecommunication lines.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Digital safe functional specifications

4.1 Key concepts

4.2 Implementation functions

4.3 Users management

4.4 Digital safe mandatory functions

4.5 Invoke functions parameters

4.6 Function results

4.7 Metadata

4.8 Version control of DOs

4.9 Retention and disposal

4.10 Secondary hosting

4.11 Backup

4.12 Storage technology

4.13 Security of access, integrity and confidentiality of messages exchanged

4.14 Encryption

4.15 Date format

4.16 Audit trail

4.17 Integrity of DOs and audit trails

4.18 Legal or regulatory requirements

5 Documentation

5.1 Technical manual

5.2 System version

5.3 Installation, operation, and user manuals

5.4 Terminology

6 Implementation

Bibliography

PD ISO/TS 24574:2025

Document management applications. Specification for a digital safe

Current

Published:

31 Jul 2025