Approach for securely processing an electronic document

A machine-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for determining whether a configuration state of a document-processing device has changed, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes:

• receiving, from the document-processing device, first state data that describes a first configuration state of the document-processing device;
• in response to receiving a request, from a requestor, to verify that the configuration state of the document-processing device has not changed since the first configuration state, sending a request for second state data to the document-processing device;
• receiving, from the document-processing device, the second state data that describes a second configuration state of the document-processing device, wherein the second state data is received subsequently to the receipt of the first state data;
• comparing the first state data with the second state data to determine if the first state data and the second state data identify the same configuration state of the document-processing device;
• and
• transmitting, to the requestor, a message indicating whether the configuration state of the document-processing device has changed since the first configuration state based on the comparison of the first state data with the second state data.

An apparatus for determining whether a configuration state of a document-processing device has changed, comprising:

• a machine-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions;
• and
• one or more processors, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by the one or more processors causes:
• receiving, from the document-processing device, first state data that describes a first configuration state of the document-processing device;
• in response to receiving a request, from a requestor, to verify that the configuration state of the document-processing device has not changed since the first configuration state, sending a request for second state data to the document-processing device;
• receiving, from the document-processing device, the second state data that describes a second configuration state of the document-processing device, wherein the second state data is received subsequently to the receipt of the first state data;
• comparing the first state data with the second state data to determine if the first state data and the second state data identify the same configuration state of the document-processing device;
• and
• transmitting, to the requestor, a message indicating whether the configuration state of the document-processing device has changed since the first configuration state based on the comparison of the first state data with the second state data.