How should you handle daylight saving time changes in historical audit data?

• A. Ignore DST changes and treat all times as local.
• B. Convert to a standard reference such as UTC for analysis and annotate DST transitions.
• C. Convert all times to the time zone of the most recent event.
• D. Wait for automatic adjustment in the database.

Answer: (B)

Handling daylight saving time changes in historical audit data requires a single, unambiguous timeline, plus visibility of when the clock shifts occurred. Converting all timestamps to a standard reference like UTC provides a consistent basis for analysis, since UTC does not observe DST and thus avoids the gaps or repeated times that occur with local clocks. By recording the UTC time for each event, you can accurately sequence events across different dates and time zones.

Annotating DST transitions afterward preserves the context: it tells analysts when a local clock shift happened and how it maps to the UTC times. This combination—UTC for the actual analysis and explicit DST transition notes for context—supports reliable reconciliation, cross-system comparisons, and reproducible audits over long periods, even when time zones or DST rules have changed.

Ignoring DST or treating all times as local risks misordering events around spring/fall transitions; converting to the time zone of the most recent event can misalign events from other regions; waiting for automatic adjustments in the database may hide past misconfigurations or historical rule changes, leading to inconsistent histories.