The new international standard ISO/TS 24574 requires more companies in regulated industries to prove the immutability of their audit records. In response, DocuWare has introduced a feature for audit trail integrity protection. This enables you to confidently demonstrate that their document history is trustworthy and complete.
Contents
- How the new audit trails work
- Easy handling
- How you can activate protection
- Background: New international standard
The new feature provides cryptographic security for all audit events. Any tampering – including altered entries, deleted records, or out-of-sequence additions – is instantly detectable.
This optional feature is available for DocuWare Cloud following the update to version 7.15 of DocuWare. If you have a locally installed system, you can expect to receive the update with DocuWare version 7.16, which is scheduled for release in spring 2027.
How the new audit trails work
The integrity verification uses two established, complementary cryptographic methods:
Chaining of audit entries: Each new audit record is cryptographically linked to the previous one, like the links in a chain. If a record is changed, removed, or inserted, the chain "breaks" at that point and the change becomes visible – making the trail tamper-evident.
Anchoring: At regular intervals, the system creates secure "snapshots" of the chain, digitally signs them, and stores them in a separately protected location. These signed checkpoints prove that the audit trail existed in a specific, unchanged state at a specific time – and they cannot be falsified or backdated. In the cloud, this makes the trail even more resistant to tampering.
Easy handling
You can check integrity at any time directly in the auditing interface (DocuWare Configuration > Audit reports). Next to each archive, a checkmark "Integrity verified” appears. With the "Verify integrity" button, a full audit can be performed and a report generated, either confirming the intactness of the audit trail or pinpointing where it was compromised.
Both the complete history and selected time periods can be checked.
How you can activate protection
Integrity protection is an optional feature, not enabled by default, as it requires additional processing and infrastructure. Currently, you can request activation for the relevant organization via DocuWare Support.
The on-premises version reliably detects manipulations by ordinary users and provides full integrity verification. However, as is technically unavoidable in a self-hosted environment, protection is limited against a system administrator with full server access. The DocuWare Cloud version offers the strongest guarantees here, thanks to its isolated, externally secured infrastructure.
Background: New international standard
Since 2025, the technical specification ISO/TS 24574 includes requirements for "digital safes" in document management applications. Among other things, it demands tamper-proof audit trails and is increasingly used, especially by European companies. Currently, there is no internationally accredited certification for ISO/TS 24574:2025.
Tamper-proof audit trails are also a requirement of the French standard NF203. Whereas this feature was once optional, it has since become mandatory for certification. DocuWare was re-certified for NF203 in July 2026.
Learn more about DocuWare's certifications.