Froscon 2022

Die FrOSCon (FRee and Open Source CONference) ist eine jährlich stattfindende Konferenz, die von der Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg und dem FrOSCon e.V. organisiert wird. Die FrOSCon bietet eine Vielzahl von Vorträgen und Workshops zu freier und Open Source Software. Die Veranstaltung findet seit 2006 regelmäßig Ende August statt. Eine große Bandbreite an Referenten verspricht zwei spannende Tage. Die Organisation wird ausschließlich von Freiwilligen übernommen.

Selbstverständlich ist auch CAcert bei der Froscon 2022 mit dabei. Wenn du während einiger Zeit mithilfst, zusammen mit unserem Event-Team den CAcert-Stand zu betreuen, bekommst du natürlich eine Aussteller-Badge und damit auch Zugang zum VIP-Bereich. Bitte melde dich bei events@cacert.org für eine Teilnahme.

Nameserver-Changes for CAcert.org -update-

Update: Nameserver-transition is currently finished, new DNSSEC-records are set and active. KSK and ZSK were replaced by CSK.

In the ongoing process to update hard- and software we’re moving our main domain cacert.org to another master-nameserver-machine (with different nameserver-software) within our rack …

As we’re using DNSSEC to secure our domains, we need to update KSK and ZSK-keys for our domains during this progress, too.

Therefore you may face some DNSSEC-errors or issues in resolving cacert.org-domains within the next days, but this should resolve itself within some hours/days.

As soon as the transition of the nameserver-move is finished, I’ll update this post.

Todo: Give ns1.cacert.org the “old” nameserver-address again (after next hardware-change onsite) so secondary-nameserver ns3.cacert.org can get back to work. ns3 is currently not listed at our registrar, so not active for CAcert-Domains.

Revocation Lists and the Future of X.509

Geoff Huston from APNIC talked at the RIPE 84 about certificate revocation as a “sanction”. He concludes that the certificate infrastructure is not working, and instead suggests DNS is the answer. You can put keys in the DNS and use TTL to control the caching lag of the information.


How do you see it? What conclusions should we draw from this at CAcert? Write your comment below!

6th OpenPGP Email Summit

There will be the 6th OpenPGP Email Summit on Friday, May 27 & Saturday, May 28, 2022 in Geneva (Switzerland) at the offoffices of Proton AG (the company behind ProtonMail and OpenPGP.js) (those interested, please ask the secretary to forward you the invitation) https://wiki.gnupg.org/OpenPGPEmailSummit202205

This is an event open for anybody involved in the development of email clients using OpenPGP for encryption, and related software. The agenda will be driven by the attendees. Anyone may propose any topic for discussion, as long as he is ready to lead the discussion.

As you know, you can having a CAcert signature on your PGP keyring. Having a CAcert signature on your PGP keyring signifies that your identity has been verified (assured) by at least two other people (that’s the only way to get more than 50 Assurance Points). So it gives credibility to your PGP keys’ authenticity.

If you want to strengthen the relationship between CAcert and OpenPGP, please feel free to representet CAcert at the 6th OpenPGP Email Summit.

Wer ist Anonymous?

https://www.nzz.ch/technologie/anonymous-wer-steckt-hinter-dem-hacker-kollektiv-ld.1678465

Sie wurden bekannt, indem sie sorglosen Umgang mit Sicherheit ausnutzten: Mit geleakten E-Mails und gehackten russischen Servern sorgte die Internetaktivisten-Gruppe Anonymous auch jüngst wieder für Schlagzeilen. Doch wer steckt hinter dem Kollektiv? Hier teilen die Investigativ-Journalisten der NZZ ihre Erkenntnisse über Ursprünge, Funktionsweisen und Tätigkeiten von Anonymous mit uns.

(Upcoming) work at the Datacenter

Update #1:

Moving www.cacert.org to new hardware was not successful due to some firewall settings, so we decided to keep the old server active.

During the next days/weeks we’ll change some firewall settings remotely so short downtimes may apply before we try to activate the new server during the next visit in some weeks.

Original note:

During the next visit at the datacenter on Friday we’re doing some hardware-changes within our rack, especially for our main website www.cacert.org.

As a preparation we will disable most of the services on www.cacert.org on Tuesday evening. The site will be fully operational again after the new server is up and running (most likely during Friday morning).

All other subdomains like blog/wiki/… will only have a short outage while we install a new firewall.

— this post will be updated after returning back from the datacenter —

Prepare the reconstruction of Ukraine now!

DEUTSCH Jetzt den Wiederaufbau der Ukraine vorbereiten! In der Ukraine hatte CAcert vor Kriegsausbruch Assurer in Lemberg und Kiew. Befinnden sich zur Zeit in Ihrer Umgebung ukrainische Flüchtlinge? Dann helfen Sie diesen, Assurer zu werden.

Zum Beispiel indem Sie beim CATS übersetzen. Indem Sie ihnen bei den Assurance beistehen und andere Assurer beiziehen, sich selber assuren lassen.

ENGLISCH Prepare the reconstruction of Ukraine now! In Ukraine, CAcert had assurers in Lviv and Kiev before the outbreak of war. Are there Ukrainian refugees in your area at the moment? Then help them to become assurers. For example, by translating at CATS. By assisting them with the assurances and involving other assurers, or by becoming an assurer yourself.

POLSKI Przygotuj si? do odbudowy Ukrainy ju? teraz! Na Ukrainie CAcert mia? przed wybuchem wojny asesorów we Lwowie i Kijowie. Czy w Twojej okolicy mieszkaj? obecnie uchod?cy z Ukrainy? Nast?pnie pomó? im sta? si? asesorami. Na przyk?ad t?umacz?c w CATS. Pomagaj?c im w uzyskaniu zapewnienia i anga?uj?c innych asekuruj?cych lub samemu staj?c si? asekuratorem.

Die Sternsinger sind wieder unterwegs

Und es kamen #Assurer aus dem #Osten und brachten dem Kind #Geschenke mit: einen #Fingerprint, ein freies #Zertifikat und einen digitalen #Identitästausweis. Sei auch du ein #König und verbreite #CAcert in der ganzen #Welt #Gib_Dich_als_Assurer_zu_erkennenhttps://bit.ly/2Rcy1Rj

The carol singers come on Epiphany Day

What will the Post look like in ten years?

Roberto Cirillo has been CEO of Swiss Post for just under two years. Before that, he was a McKinsey consultant, CEO of the British hospital group Optegra and head of the activities of the service company Sodexo in France. Cirillo took up his post with the aim of stopping the downward trend. In the past five years, the Post’s turnover has fallen by around CHF 1 milliard. The volume of letters is decreasing rapidly, the post offices are less and less frequented.

In an interview with the NZZ, he said: “Today, we make more than 90% of our turnover in the logistics sector with business customers. Especially in e-commerce and goods logistics. Of the CHF 3 milliard we plan to invest in the next four years, the majority will go into logistics and communication services. The reason why the Post was created over 170 years ago was not to transport letters. It was the secrecy of letters. It was about transmitting information securely, reliably and trustworthily. That’s what we want to do more of in the digital world as well.” (22.02.2021)