A new company, CertifiedTime, in San Jose, CA is targeting the gaming industry with what it calls the most accurate time stamping product available for electronic transactions. We spoke with Bruce Garofalo of CertifiedTime for an explanation of how "Certified Time" would benefit the gaming industry.
IGN: What is Certified Time?
Garofalo: CertifiedTime provides access to time data that is maintained in accordance with standards set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Time and Frequency Laboratories and the US Naval Observatory (USNO). The time data supplied is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the most accurate time available, and is derived from the legal time base of the United States of America.
The CertifiedTime Network Certified Time delivers accurate and audited time data at a regional level from a global network of Certified Timing Centers. This ensures that geographically diverse time setting requests (New York and California, for example) receive the same time data. This enables the enterprise wide synchronization of computer systems to the correct time, UTC. This ability is mandatory for industries that require provable simultaneity computer time in their operating models (that being the deployment of the "same" time for all computers in their infrastructure.)
IGN: How is an Internet gaming company better off with this service?
Garofalo: Benefit 1: The first is that the level of confidence your customers have in your system is increased. This would be due to the fact that your computer clocks have been, and will continue to be synchronized to a federal timeserver. For games where the time that a bet was placed is important, assurance that a company's time base is correct is important.
Benefit 2: The opportunity for fraud due to internal or external changing of time data is substantially reduced. This is due to the following: The TOD settings in your computing infrastructure is now managed and set by the Network Time Protocol (NTP), and not at the system console. The NTP requests are transmitted over secured leased lines. CertifiedTime's records of the NTP requests can be compared to a system's own logs to see if the time data records are in sync.
Benefit 3: The Internet gaming industry could be a leader in adopting "Certified Time" as part of the Best Computing Practices Model (BCP). CertifiedTime is discussing with several accounting and auditing firms about the addition of "Certified Time" to the BCP. The auditors we are working with have concerns about the accuracy and assurance of establishing a time base from TOD settings that have been set locally.
Organizations such as the National Association of Security Dealers (NASD) recognize the importance of establishing a credible time base for an industry. As a result, all financial traders must synchronize their systems to an approved time source every morning prior to the trading day. It seems reasonable that all time sensitive industries would adopt similar rules.