Assured transport of data over a network

An apparatus comprising:

• a memory configured to store a secret unique identifier of the apparatus;
• and
• one or more processors coupled to the memory, wherein the one or more processors are configured to:
• obtain a network packet including data;
• perform a deterministic mathematical computation on the data to produce a string of characters derived from the data;
• insert an indication of the string of characters into the network packet;
• provide the indication of the string of characters to a distributed ledger based on the secret unique identifier, wherein the distributed ledger stores the indication of the string of characters and records an indication of a time at which the indication of the string of characters was stored in the distributed ledger;
• obtain, from the distributed ledger, the indication of the time;
• insert the indication of the time into the network packet;
• and
• provide the network packet towards a destination.

One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor of a network entity, cause the processor to:

• obtain a network packet including data;
• perform a deterministic mathematical computation on the data to produce a string of characters derived from the data;
• insert an indication of the string of characters into the network packet;
• provide the indication of the string of characters to a distributed ledger based on a secret unique identifier of the network entity, wherein the distributed ledger stores the indication of the string of characters and records an indication of a time at which the indication of the string of characters was stored in the distributed ledger;
• obtain, from the distributed ledger, the indication of the time;
• insert the indication of the time into the network packet;
• and
• provide the network packet towards a destination.