What do the terms on this site mean?

Integrity and proof

Fingerprint (hash)

A unique value calculated from the exact content of a file; ROOTKey uses SHA-256. Comparing hashes answers one question: did it change? Not what, who, when or where - and not which version to trust.

Sealing

Every version of every file, table or record gets a unique fingerprint, sealed in an independent public registry with a timestamp.

Change detection

ROOTKey continuously compares your data with the sealed record. Any change is caught and explained: what, who, when and where.

Audit trail

Each file carries its full history - who, what, when and where - sealed in an independent public registry.

Auditable cryptographic evidence

Every critical action produces an independent proof that external auditors can verify without access to the original data.

Immutable timestamps

A chain of custody for every security event, with verifiable evidence of when it happened.

Issuer authenticity

Verify organisational ownership and digital provenance.

Recovery

Verifiable recovery points

Backups with cryptographically verified integrity: date, content and integrity, all verifiable.

Snapshots

Immutable snapshots are taken continuously: encrypted, fingerprinted and stored in geographically separated locations.

Restore

Restore the last version proven valid, down to one file or one row - not a backup that may be compromised. Only what was altered returns to the sealed original, cryptographically verified.

RTO

Recovery time objective. One-click recovery restores the exact state of your data, from any snapshot, in under 4 hours (contractual on the Enterprise tiers, a target on the platform plans).

Regulation

NIS2

NIS2 is an EU directive, applying since 18 October 2024 through national law, for essential and important entities in 18 sectors.

DORA

DORA (the Digital Operational Resilience Act) is an EU regulation, in effect since January 2025, for financial entities in the EU and their critical third-party ICT providers.

GDPR Article 32

GDPR Article 32 requires appropriate technical measures to ensure data integrity.

Essential entity

Under NIS2 Article 3, large entities in Annex I sectors, e.g. energy, banking and health, plus a few named whatever their size, such as qualified trust service providers, DNS service providers and central government. Sector and size decide together, and the NIS2 simulator checks your case.

Important entity

Under NIS2 Article 3, the other medium or large entities in Annex I or Annex II sectors, e.g. manufacturing, food and postal. A medium-sized company in an Annex I sector is therefore important, not essential. Check your case with the NIS2 simulator.

Significant incident

Significant incidents include those that cause severe operational disruption, financial loss or impact on other entities - covering ransomware attacks, data-integrity breaches and supply-chain compromises.

Early warning

Notification to the CSIRT within 24h (early warning) after detecting an incident with significant impact.

Deployment and contracts

SaaS

Managed by ROOTKey · hosted in the EU

Private cloud

Your cloud provider · your account

On-premise

Entirely within your perimeter

Hybrid

On-premise for data · separate SaaS dashboards

DPA

Data Processing Agreement. On the SaaS platform, ROOTKey acts as a processor under a DPA, available on request.

SLA

Service level agreement. The 99.9% availability SLA is contractual on the Enterprise tiers and a target on the platform plans; the Sovereign tier adds custom SLAs for availability, latency, recovery objectives and escalation paths.

Frequently asked questions