Timestamp Serialization Question

["Jordan, Bret" <bret.jordan@bluecoat.com>]

There tends to be two options for dealing with objects that have multiple timestamps and their corresponding precision. Sean and I have been talking through the pros and cons of these.  We would like to get everyone's opinion.  Which do you prefer, option 1 or option 2

Option 1:

This option put the burden on the JSON serialization format to add an extra "_precision" field to each timestamp enabled field.  This is a much flatter and easier to parse and process representation, but the con is it requires unique field names.

{
   "type": "incident",
   "initial_compromise_time" : "2015-12-07T22:00:00Z",
   "initial_compromise_time_precision": "hour",
   "first_data_exfiltrated_time" : "2015-12-09T05:11:00Z",
   "first_data_exfiltrated_time_precision" : "minute",
   "incident_opened_time" : "2016-01-15T11:19:22Z",
   "incident_closed_time" : "2016-01-19T17:24:017Z"
}

Option 2:

This option will require a nested object and struct to store this data and will have an extra layer of indirection for all of those times when the timestamp is at the default precision. 
{
  "type": "incident",
  "initial_compromise_time" : {
       "timestamp": "2015-12-07T22:00:00Z",
       "timestamp_precision": "hour"
   },
  "first_data_exfiltrated_time" : { 
       "timestamp": "2015-12-09T05:11:00Z",
       "timestamp_precision" : "minute"
   },
  "incident_opened_time" : {
       "timestamp": "2016-01-15T11:19:22Z"
   },
  "incident_closed_time" : {
       "timestamp": "2016-01-19T17:24:017Z"
   }
}

Thanks,

Bret

Bret Jordan CISSP

Director of Security Architecture and Standards | Office of the CTO

Blue Coat Systems

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