Patent ID: 8756428

Claim:
A computerized authentication method for authentication of an electronic document designed to be sent on-board an aircraft, comprising: generating a digital signature of said electronic document, said electronic document including at least one program or data file to be sent to the aircraft, using a private key corresponding to a public key certified by a certifying authority; sending via the Internet a time stamp request of said electronic document to a time stamping authority and receiving in response thereto a time-stamp signed by the time stamping authority; sending via the Internet a verification request to an Online Certificate Statute Protocol (OCSP) server and receiving in response thereto a statute of a certificate of said public key, following on from said time stamp request; adding to said electronic document the digital signature, the certificate of said public key, the time-stamp, and the statute of said certificate to create an authenticated electronic document including said at least one program or data file and said digital signature, the certificate of said public key, the time-stamp signed by the time stamping authority, and the statute of said certificate of said public key; uploading to the aircraft the authenticated electronic document including said at least one program or data file to be sent to the aircraft, wherein said document comprises a plurality of files and that the digital signature of the document is obtained by, generating an individual digital fingerprint for each of said files, generating a collective digital fingerprint for all of said files from their individual digital fingerprints, and encoding the collective digital fingerprint from said private key.