Tag Archives: english

Partially restricted operation / most services available

As a result of a chain of technical failures of old equipment already scheduled for replacement, there are currently certain limitations in the services provided to members of the CAcert community. We regret this terribly.

  • bugs.cacert.org ?Bug management: normal operation
  • community.cacert.org ?Service hub: normal operation
  • irc.cacert.org ?IRC: normal operation
  • secure.cacert.org ?reduced service
  • selfservice.cacert.org ?password reset: normal operation
  • webmail.cacert.org ?webmail: normal operation
  • wiki.cacert.org ?wiki/help centre: normal operation
  • www.cacert.org ?main page: reduced service

Mid september, we discovered that a partition contained a corrupt file system. A
subsequent hardware test showed that one of the hard drives was reporting hardware errors. In order to be able to continue using the system, we have moved this partition to a second drive.

Since the end of september the system no longer responds. We suspect that other partitions are defective. Neither web access nor SSH access work, so the only way to find the error can only be analysed in more detail by a visit to our data centre.
In order to still be able to offer as many services as possible to the CAcert community until the repair, we redirected the connections for www.cacert.org and secure.cacert.org in the incoming firewall to the second system. As a result of ongoing hardware renewal, however, this fall-back level is not quite complete: There is no working signer and no up-to-date copy of the CAcert database attached to this system.

That is, why the main page can be used as a start for informing our users about the blog for now, while certificate issuing and WoT access has to be postponed until our technical volunteers have made the several-hour trip to the data centre for troubleshooting. As they are doing this in their spare time and at their own expense, we are very grateful to these volunteers that they will probably be able to do this in mid-October.

If you would like to know what you can do yourself to ensure that such interruptions occur less frequently and are resolved more quickly, read this!

DEUTSCH: Infolge einer kaskadierten technischen Störung sind zur Zeit leider nicht alle Dienstleistungen übers Netz abrufbar. Alle Fernwartschritte haben unsere technischen Freiwilligen bereits unternommen. Bis zu einen Vororteinsatz im Rechenzentrum im Ausland voraussichtlich Mitte Oktober ist der Zugriff auf den Signer und die Datenbank nicht möglich. Wir bedauern dies sehr. Was Sie tun können, um solche Ausfallzeiten künftig zu verringern, lesen Sie hier!

FRANÇAIS: Suite à une panne technique en cascade, tous les services ne sont malheureusement pas accessibles en ligne pour le moment. Toutes les démarches de télémaintenance ont déjà été effectuées par nos volontaires techniques. L’accès au Signer et à la base de données est impossible jusqu’à une intervention sur place dans le centre de calcul à l’étranger, probablement mi-octobre. Nous le regrettons vivement. Vous pouvez lire ici ce que vous pouvez faire pour réduire ces temps d’arrêt à l’avenir!

PORTUGUÊS: Devido a uma falha técnica em cascata, infelizmente nem todos os serviços estão disponíveis pela rede no momento. Todas as medidas de manutenção remota já foram tomadas por nossos voluntários técnicos. O acesso ao signatário e ao banco de dados não será possível até uma visita no local ao centro de dados no exterior, provavelmente em meados de outubro. Lamentamos muito o ocorrido. Leia aqui o que você pode fazer para reduzir esses períodos de inatividade no futuro!

ESPAÑOL: Debido a un fallo técnico en cascada, lamentablemente no todos los servicios están disponibles actualmente a través de la red. Nuestros voluntarios técnicos ya han tomado todas las medidas de mantenimiento a distancia. El acceso al firmante y a la base de datos no será posible hasta una visita in situ al centro de datos en el extranjero, probablemente a mediados de octubre. Lo lamentamos mucho. Lea aquí lo que puede hacer para reducir estos tiempos de inactividad en el futuro.

Screenshot of the CAcert browser client certificate web application

Lowering the barriers of entry

In the coming few months we will start running some services with Let’s Encrypt server certificates. We decided to go this route to make it easier for people to join our community or contribute to our work.

A nice side effect of this move will be that we can provide these services https encrypted and redirect all unencrypted http URLs to their https counterparts.

We will continue to use our own server certificates for our CA systems and other services that are only relevant after joining our community.

We also will continue to provide our community with client and server certificates. All our services that support or require client certificates will still use those issued by our CA.

We recently implemented a web application to make it easier to get started with client certificates. The application provides a friendly and completely client side interface to generate key pairs and signing requests in your browser.

Last chance, hurry up, catch your review!

Dear friend of #CAcert, here comes the last #bugs that needs a #review. We are so glad, that you are willing to #help you #community and review only one of them during the #spring #offensive.

https://bugs.cacert.org/view.php?id=1310
https://bugs.cacert.org/view.php?id=1129
https://bugs.cacert.org/view.php?id=1302
https://bugs.cacert.org/view.php?id=875
https://bugs.cacert.org/view.php?id=1304

We published all ready 12 bugs for review earlyer today in this channel. Maybe, you find a more conviniant one there?

Join the CAcert Spring Offensive

What’s a #review compared to solving a problem? Flutter like a butterfly on one of our bug flowers and check out the code. Here are the second four, if you don’t find anything suitable for you to join the #CAcert spring offensive, we’ll give you four more in a few hours.

https://bugs.cacert.org/view.php?id=1354
https://bugs.cacert.org/view.php?id=1423
https://bugs.cacert.org/view.php?id=775
https://bugs.cacert.org/view.php?id=1253
Nothing that fits you? Have a look to the first four links we published two hours ago in the german post.

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)

Merry CAcertmas!

Dear friends and members of the CAcert community. Are you curious and want to know what is wrapped in the package under the tree? This year, Father Christmas has packed something really nice.

As always with CAcert, you can unwrap it faster and enjoy it more quickly if you help out a little. Translate a little. Or do a little programming. Or test a few new functions. Or like this. To do so, you find further information on the web or write to our secretary.