Apparatus and method for certifying the delivery of information

摘要

A method and apparatus by which the recipient of several pieces of newly released information can automatically verify its accurate delivery is disclosed. The first step in the method is to generate a certificate, for example, a checksum, for each of the pieces of information. The certificates are combined, for example, using an exclusive OR function to form elements of a release vector such that each certificate is used to generate multiple ones of the release vector elements. The release vector and a program are then delivered to the recipient by one medium while the pieces of information are delivered by another medium. The program is used at the recipient's location to generate a current vector using the same methods that were used to generate the release vector. Next, the current vector is compared to the release vector and the result is used to identify missing or corrupted pieces of the delivered information.