overall operation of the present system in step s 500 an electronic record is sent to the repository 5 from a remote location in step s 502 a unique authoritative record is created and stored within repository 5 when a person at a remote location wants to sign the authoritative record a copy of the authoritative record is made that is distinctly different from but perceptively the same as the authoritative record the distinctly different copy and a partial message digest for the beginning information are sent to the person at step s 504 the copy of the authoritative record and the partial message digest can of course be sent in two separate steps in step s 506 the message digest is completed at the remote location using the copy of the authoritative record as input and the remote location uses a private key and the completed message digest to create the digital signature the digital signature is then transmitted to the repository 5 where it is validated and upon affirmative validation the authoritative record is revised with the digital signature step s 508 fig6 a 6 d provide a detailed flow chart of exemplary embodiments for carrying out the method discussed in association with fig5 in fig6 a an exemplary embodiment for receipting a record in repository 5 and generating the initial authoritative record is illustrated in step s 600 the record is received in the present repository which may also be referred to as a trusted repository in step s 602 a time stamp which may include other identifying information is completed for and appended to the record the phrase u201c receipted record u201d refers to any.