[cabfpub] Policy Review WG proposal for clarifying the term "CA"

[Dimitris Zacharopoulos]

All,

The Policy Review Working Group has been reviewing the use of the term 
"Certification Authority" in the BRs and is now considering adopting a 
use of the term "Trust Service Provider", which is included in ISO 21188 
(referenced by WebTrust for CAs) and ETSI definitions.  In general, the 
term "CA" might be used for the more technical systems for issuing and 
revoking certificates, while Trust Service Providers could be used for 
recognizing that a party could operate multiple CAs with different policies.

A proposed definition of "*Certification Authority (CA)*" is "a 
technical certificate generation service that is trusted by one or more 
entities to create, sign, revoke, and provide status information for 
public key certificates and is operated by a Trust Service Provider."

"*Trust Service Provider (TSP)*" would be defined as "an organization 
providing trust services, through a number of Certification Authorities, 
to their customers who may act as Subscribers or Relying Parties."

The goal of the WG is to modify the BRs to be clearer on the use of 
terms, but not otherwise to change any rules.  By defining "CA" as the 
technical entity and "TSP" as the provider, we think we can minimize the 
number of changes while clarifying the Baseline Requirements.

We invite your comments on this topic.


Dimitris.
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