Verifying digital records

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a tool for preserving and authenticating digital records. "The researchers’ solution is to create a publicly available digital fingerprint, known as a cryptographic hash mark, that will make it possible for anyone to determine that the documents are authentic and have not been tampered with." While it has been relatively easy to tamper with analog and digital information to change dates, etc. the objective of this tool is to span generations to preserve history and create a record for problems that are not easily solved within one lifetime. The article can be read here, in the New York Times.