- (Non-Critical) Infrastructure Projects are advancing, Board has accepted to go for Vienna (Sonance) and Berne one is in preparation (contract needs to be made), the hardware in Berne is ready. (see Audit Next Steps (Systems), Infrastructure Host)
- New Arbitrators makes their first steps in the Arbitration Team. The backlog of Arbitration cases increases rapidly, after the support blockage seems to be fixed.
- The first new Support Engineer starts working in the Support Team, also new people on the Triage team. As working on the backlog of the support mailbox, about 15 new disputes upto now forwarded to the Arbitrations Team to a total of 53 init (23)/running (30) cases. Some diputes filed originaly Jun 2009, Sep 2009
- The Draft CPS is now on the main site see on the Blog and the CPS on main Site.
- Assurances Program: As of Board motion m20090912.1 and finaly m20090914.2 also the assurances of underaged people (u18) were ceased. A workaround is to follow the PoJAM (WIP) procedure, but a dispute filing is allways possible.
- Policy group decide p20091108 to make IDNs available everyone with some restrictions to minimize homograph risks.
- recruitment of Support Engineers
. relates to the Arbitration – Case Managers – Support discussion
. Support was identified as a bottleneck, now starting try #3 to get people in
. see also Board Meeting Agenda 2009-11-15
. and Board-Next-Meeting Sunday 2009-11-15 – 21:00 UTC – Input
. and Board-Next-Meeting Sunday 2009-11-15 – 21:00 UTC – Input – Reply
. and Board-Next-Meeting Sunday 2009-11-15 – 21:00 UTC – Input – another Reply
. IanG appointed as temporary Support Officer assisted by u60 see e.g. Support Team
Monthly Archives: November 2009
Security Party in Zurich, Switzerland on December 11, 2009
On the evening of Friday December 11, 2009, a security party will be held in Zurich, Switzerland. The main focus of the event will be PGP keysigning, but CAcert assurances will also be available (why else write here? :-). Please refer to the event website (in German) for organizational details. If you would like to participate as an assurer, please register on the CAcert.org wiki.
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Am Freitag Abend 11. Dezember 2009 findet in Zürich, Schweiz, eine Security Party statt. Der Fokus des Anlasses ist PGP Keysigning, es werden aber auch CAcert Assurances durchgeführt (warum sonst hier schreiben? :-). Die organisatorischen Details findest Du auf der Event Website (auf Deutsch). Falls Du als Assurer mitmachen möchtest so registriere Dich bitte auf dem CAcert.org Wiki.
A small milestone: CPS to the main site
After a recent policy group decision p20091106, Philipp moved the DRAFT CPS onto the policy page on the main website, and also got rid of the old document that was at cacert.org/ policy .php with a redirect.
We started writing the CPS or Certification Practice Statement way back in early 2006. It was the first document to be considered, and the last to get to DRAFT state. This is in part because stuff was thrown out of it into other more appropriate documents: Organisation Assurance Policy, Dispute Resolution Policy, Policy on Policy, Assurance Policy and Security Policy all took their roots from this area, and for a while, we concentrated on those. CPS became the one that couldn’t be finished until the others were stable.
Curiously, there was already a fairly good effort at a CPS in place, written by Christian Barmala. This was a pretty good effort really, and it formed the starting point. There were two problems with the old document, which were that CAcert didn’t own or (totally) control it, and it had never faced audit scrutiny. So the decision was made pretty early on to rewrite it, and looking back, that was the right one.
Today’s move marks the removal of that old document. But our thanks go to Christian for giving us a starting point, to study and build on. Major influences on this new CPS include Philipp Güring, Jens Paul, Philipp Dunkel, Teus Hagen, Daniel Black in time order. And of course, myself, as eternal critic.
If you’re wondering, what next? then hop on over to the policy group and lend a hand. They’ve got a lot to do: CCS, finish the CPS and SP, PoJAM, TTP, Remote/Desert, Tverify, Code-Signing. Recently, the policy group just made it easier to get IDNs (a change that made it into the CPS).
And, if you’re wondering why it took 3.5 long years to get the CPS to where it is, you’re asking the wrong question. To paraphrase a recent post;
“ask not when your policy is written and ready for you, |
Replacement of CAcert signing server – photo reportage
On September 11, 2009 the aging CAcert signing server was replaced by new up-to-date hardware, thanks to a donation from NLUUG (the association of (professional) Open Systems and Open Standards users in the Netherlands) to Oophaga, CAcert’s hardware keeper. Please also check the original announcement.
Here we show some pictures taken during the replacement/upgrade action.
Hans Verbeek checks the sliders for mounting the new CAcert signing server at BIT
New CAcert signing server mounted in the rack at BIT
Backside of new CAcert signing server plus Sun1,2,3,4
Mendel Mobach debugging new usbserial connection, Hans Verbeek watching
Mendel Mobach and Wytze van der Raay debugging new usbserial connection between CAcert webserver and signing server
Generator and fuel tank for backup power for CAcert servers at BIT’s data centre
CAcert’s old signing server after putting back the copied master disk
CAcert new signing server with properly locked front panel
CAcert new signing server features a dual redundant power supply!
CAcert auf dem Brandenburger Linux-Infotag 2009 – 21. November
CAcert ist auf dem diesjährigen Brandenburger Linux-Infotag (BLIT) am 21. November 2009 vertreten.
Dr. Thomas Bremer wird einen Vortrag zum Thema “Freie Zertifikate für Schulen und Hochschulen” halten und ebenfalls Informationen zur Verwendung von Zertifikaten geben. Dem Vortrag könnt ihr im Hörsaal 3 von ca 14:00 – 15:00 Uhr beiwohnen.
Der BLIT findet in Potsdam (Griebnitzsee) im Haus 6 des Instituts für Informatik der Universität Potsdam statt.
Für die Anfahrt mit dem öffentlichen Nahverkehr bietet sich die S-Bahn Linie 7 an, alternativ verkehrt die Regionalbahn mit der Linie RB 21.
Solltet ihr mit dem Auto anreisen, so sucht in eurem Navi – sofern vorhanden, die “Prof. Dr. Helmert Straße” in 14482 Potsdam. Eine Wegbeschreibung sowie weitere Informationen zur Anfahrt findet ihr auf der Seite des Brandenburger Linux-Infotages unter BLIT – Anfahrt.
Weitere Informationen zum BLIT findet ihr unter:
http://www.blit.org/2009/
Last chance: End of thawte points transfer on 16th november 2009
(EN)
Please note, that all thawte points tansfers must be started before 16th november 2009. After this date we can´t check your status at thawte.
If you have 0 points at CAcert, you get can up to 150 pts.
Please click here for details: http://wiki.cacert.org/ThawteNotary
Interface for thawte transfer:
https://tverify.cacert.org
If you need help, you can also write to our mailinglists – details:
https://lists.cacert.org/wws/arc/cacert-support (EN)
https://lists.cacert.org/wws/arc/cacert-support (DE)
https://lists.cacert.org/wws/arc/cacert-es (ES)
https://lists.cacert.org/wws/arc/cacert-br (BR)
—-
(DE)
Bitte beachtet, dass ein Transfer der Punkte aus dem Thawte WoT nur noch bis zum 16. November 2009 möglich ist. Wir haben danach keine Möglichkeit mehr, eure Daten zu verifizieren und können daher keine Punkte mehr transferieren.
Wenn ihr aktuell 0 Punkte bei CAcert auf dem Konto habt, so könnt ihr dies über den Transfer auf bis zu 150 Punkte aufstocken.
Für Details einfach hier klicken: http://wiki.cacert.org/ThawteNotary
Das Interface für den Transfer findet ihr unter:
https://tverify.cacert.org
Wenn ihr Hilfe benötigt, so könnt ihr uns auch über die Mailinglisten kontaktieren:
https://lists.cacert.org/wws/arc/cacert-support (Englisch)
https://lists.cacert.org/wws/arc/cacert-de (Deutsch)
https://lists.cacert.org/wws/arc/cacert-es (Spanisch)
https://lists.cacert.org/wws/arc/cacert-br ((brasilianisches) Portugiesisch)
Community Updates
You wanted to stay updated about CAcert but don’t have the time to read mailing lists or search the Wiki?
Then have a look at:
http://wiki.cacert.org/comma/Community/Update
Or have you been doing something (together?) for the project and think it’s worth others should know about it?
Then don’t hesitate to post a short note and a link to the blog/mailing list post and wiki page there. 🙂