How safe is GnuCash?

Jean-David Beyer jeandavid8 at verizon.net
Fri Jan 13 06:51:07 EST 2017


On 01/13/2017 12:29 AM, GWB wrote:
> Would snapshots of the file system accomplish what the original poster
> is after?  That's pretty much what I do, but maybe my setup is odd.  I
> use Ubuntu with both zfs and btrfs file systems.  Both can make
> snapshots; zfs snapshots are read only by default, and require cloning
> to a new file system to become writable.  btrfs makes writeable
> snapshots by default, but you can specify read only snapshots.  Like
> the burnable DVD option (which I like, by the way) snapshots freeze an
> entire file system in time.

I am not an accountant, but I doubt snapshots would be much use.

There seems to me to be a way to accomplish this, that might satisfy a
real accountant.

At the intervals required, digitally time-stamp the file
(_not using your own system's clock_ that is easily falsified)l and then
digitally signing that. The purpose of digitally signing the file is
that any change to the file after that, be it deliberate tampering, or
even just a machine or media error, would be instantly detected.

Software such as this will digitally sign a file in a most secure
manner. Only the person in possession of the secret key can sign a file
with this. It is a public key encryption system, and the secret key is
never divulged to others. The public key can by publicized.

https://gnupg.org/

A web site that can time stamp software is this one:

Stamper is a service provided free of charge to Internet users.

You are very welcome to use Stamper, but you may only do so if
you have first read our Terms of use, which exclude liability on
our part and which provide for you to indemnify us against any
potential liability arising from your use of Stamper.  By using
Stamper you warrant that you have read and accept the Terms.

The Terms of use are available by sending email to
info at stamper.itconsult.co.uk or from the web page
http://www.itconsult.co.uk/stamper.htm.

These are meant to work together to time-stamp e-mails. This is not
exactly what is required, but it might be possible to combine them. As
you can see, I have not fully thought this through, nor have I put
together a system to support it. But perhaps something of this kind
might satisfy the auditors that some may be exposed to.

-- 
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