   | Welcome to the Notary Talk General Discussion Forum. Before posting, please read the  |
| You are replying to this message: | | |
Posted by ABC Legal Docs, LLC - Jerry Lucas on 11/24/22 7:28pm
For paper records, notaries should use journals with acid-free paper and pens with acid-free ink. Using archival grade supplies prevents deterioration of paper records over many years. Paper journals should be stored in a secure controlled environment to prevent damage or loss from theft, fire, flood, mold, mildew, insects, rodents, etc. I use a Sentry fireproof waterproof safe.
For electronic records, journals, and audio-video recordings, notaries must follow state laws and rules and industry best practices. Notary laws do not anticipate or describe every possible scenario. There is a common law duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent harm or loss to others.
Courts have used the NNA Model Notary Act as a guidebook of industry best practices. It contains information on proper security, access, and preservation of paper and electronic notarial records, including delegation to third-party repositories.
For local digital storage, I use Samsung FIT+ metal body USB flash drives. They have a 5-year warranty and are waterproof, shock-proof, temperature-proof, magnet-proof, and X-ray-proof (within specifications). A new high-quality flash drive used only for archiving files will likely last 10 years. A large capacity drive may be used to store 2 copies of each file for redundancy.
Free VeraCrypt software may be used to store files in an encrypted "container" to prevent unauthorized access and tampering.
I use free software ExactFile to calculate and store a hash value for each file stored. At least once a year, I run ExactFile to do a quick file integrity check that compares the expected hash value with the current hash value for each file. It finds and reports any data errors. I can replace a bad file with a known good copy from another local or remote backup copy.
This is known as an active archive, where files are verified periodically for data integrity, versus a passive archive where files are not checked and rely on hope for data preservation. Hope is not a strategy.
Notaries are public officials keeping government authorized records. Notarial records are important in serving the public and may be needed as evidence in a dispute, procedure, or court case. I also reviewed the paper and electronic recordkeeping rules followed by our state archives and courts for best practices.
States are beginning to pass new laws and court rules that accept blockchain records as legal evidence. File hash values can be recorded on a blockchain as immutable evidence of a file's existence, provenance, and content digest. If a notary gives a copy of a file to a customer the hash value verifies it is a duplicate of the same file, without corruption or tampering. |
|
