Digital Documents – the Weight of Evidence

About the publication

The Danish Government IT Security Council has adopted a number of recommendations to public authorities and private companies on how to carry out the transition to digital document management ("paperless" administration and filing) and still achieve the necessary legal security.

An organisation has to consider a number of questions before making a decision to implement digital document management, especially whether it is sufficient to file documents in digital form or whether it is necessary to some extent to have paper archives in addition.

The guidelines drawn up by the IT Security Council are based on Danish legislation and case law on the requirements for documents as evidence. It is the opinion of the Council that an organisation that follows the guidelines will generally be able to produce evidence for the content of a digital document (authenticity and integrity).The level of security outlined in the guidelines should be sufficient for most organisations.