Document authentication

A computer program product for authenticating a publication date for a document, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code readable and executable by a processor to perform a method comprising:

• parsing a document from its authored form into document objects, wherein the document objects are subcomponents of the document;
• separating each of the document objects into a content object and a formatting object, wherein the content object contains content, and wherein the formatting object contains code that describes a presentation format of the content;
• generating a different digital signature of the content objects for each of the content objects;
• comparing each different digital signature with a stored hierarchy of digital signatures, wherein the stored hierarchy of digital signatures includes a time stamp describing when each stored digital signature was last updated in an authorized manner;
• based on said comparing of each different digital signature with the stored hierarchy of digital signatures, determining if the document contains only authorized changes that have been previously recorded in the stored hierarchy of digital signatures;
• and
• generating a report describing results of said comparing and determining steps.

A computer system comprising:

• a processor, a computer readable memory, and a computer readable storage medium;
• first program instructions to parse a document from its authored form into document objects, wherein the document objects are subcomponents of the document;
• second program instructions to separate each of the document objects into a content object and a formatting object, wherein the content object contains content, and wherein the formatting object contains code that describes a presentation format of the content;
• third program instructions to generate a different digital signature of the content objects for each of the content objects;
• fourth program instructions to compare each different digital signature with a stored hierarchy of digital signatures, wherein the stored hierarchy of digital signatures includes a time stamp describing when each stored digital signature was last updated in an authorized manner;
• fifth program instructions to, based on said comparing of each different digital signature with the stored hierarchy of digital signatures, determine if the document contains only authorized changes that have been previously recorded in the stored hierarchy of digital signatures;
• and
• sixth program instructions to generate a report describing results of said comparing and determining;
• and wherein
• said first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth program instructions are stored on said computer readable storage medium for execution by said processor via said computer readable memory.