Patent ID: 6968456

Claim:
A method for providing a tamper-proof storage of an audit trail having one or more records for a database system, the integrity of the audit trail being vulnerable to actions taken by an access-privileged user, the method comprising: creating an initial authentication token and initial validation token for the audit trail from a Pseudo Random Number, a Timestamp, and a preliminary authentication token; saving the initial authentication token as a current authentication token in a predetermined format in a secured information storage; generating one or more validation tokens and authentication tokens sequentially from the initial authentication token and the initial validation token through a combination of at least one hashing process and at least one encryption process; integrating the generated validation tokens in the records of the audit trail by a writing machine which is decoupled from the database and inaccessible by the user; and validating, by an authorized auditor, the records of the audit trail by using the generated validation tokens in order to detect a tampering of the audit trail, wherein a writing and reading access to the secured information storage is given to the writing machine and only a reading access is given to the auditor, and wherein the Pseudo Random Number, the Timestamp, and the preliminary authentication token are saved in the secured information storage.