‘Time Capsule’ Archiving Through Strong Dark Archives (SDA): Designing Trustable Distributed Archives for Sensitive Materials

44 Pages Posted: 9 Jun 2022 Last revised: 21 Jul 2022

See all articles by John Bowers

John Bowers

Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

Jack Cushman

Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab

Jayshree Sarathy

Harvard University

Jonathan L. Zittrain

Harvard University - Harvard Law School; Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS); Harvard University - Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

Date Written: June 1, 2022

Abstract

Archivists regularly contend with a wide range of security threats, including data breaches, inadvertent loss, and legal action by those hoping to make sealed records public. These threats are particularly salient when sensitive materials are donated with delayed-release conditions. Trust in archivists’ ability to enforce such conditions gives donors the confidence to enter into the historical record materials that they might otherwise destroy. But as these materials are increasingly born-digital (and therefore hackable, convenient to exfiltrate en masse, and more easily corrupted), and as governments and private parties become ever more aggressive in their efforts to secure early releases, we must innovate in order to stand still. To compensate for these new dynamics, we propose Strong Dark Archives (SDA), a blended legal and technical protocol for securing delayed-released archival materials among a network of libraries. SDA leverages modern cryptography and institutional agreements to coordinate access-control across multiple accredited archival organizations, providing broad resilience to data breaches, technical failures, and legal process. Through this distributed approach to security, SDA imposes meaningful friction on efforts to force the early disclosure of archival records.

Keywords: distributed preservation, digital archiving, electronic records management, privacy, access

Suggested Citation

Bowers, John and Cushman, Jack and Sarathy, Jayshree and Zittrain, Jonathan, ‘Time Capsule’ Archiving Through Strong Dark Archives (SDA): Designing Trustable Distributed Archives for Sensitive Materials (June 1, 2022). Harvard Public Law Working Paper No. 22-17, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4124742 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4124742

John Bowers

Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society ( email )

Harvard Law School
23 Everett, 2nd Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Jack Cushman

Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab ( email )

Jayshree Sarathy (Contact Author)

Harvard University

1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Jonathan Zittrain

Harvard University - Harvard Law School ( email )

1563 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) ( email )

79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Harvard University - Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

HOME PAGE: http://cyber.harvard.edu

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