[wellylug] CA-CERT Assurance

[Klenner, Colin]

Hello Simon,
Thank you for your offer to attend the WellyLUG meeting, and your offer to
make a presentation to the LUG members.

You are, of course, welcome to attend the meeting. I am not sure if you have
attended in the past so I should advise you that meetings are not a formal
affair. We have tended to avoid commercialising the meetings as they are
much more about people informing and helping people, but we do not preclude
an opportunity to understand the type of offering your are making. Despite a
presentation recently about public-key encryption I remain unconvinced that
this technology is for me. If you are able to offer some understanding that
may convince me I would be happy to hear about it, as I am sure others would
as well.

Presentations at meetings are normally booked in advance through the
WellyLUG Website. This enables the presentation to be known about prior to
the meetings, and people can elect to be present, take notice, or whatever.
If you have problems with putting a booking on please contact the webmaster
in the first instance.

In regards to comments circulating back and forth on this mailing list I
must advise that this medium does not represent the LUG, nor should comments
made here be construed to mean as much. The mailing list is a (mostly) open
forum of discussion and (often) helpful feedback. We have been asked to
avoid commercialising the mailing list by our friendly ISP. I thank you for
raising the opportunity to us through the mailing list and hope you will
continue to contribute helpfully, and also attend the meetings with a view
of a presentation when you feel it appropriate.

Regards
Colin Klenner

-----Original Message-----
From: wellylug-admin at lists.naos.co.nz
[mailto:wellylug-admin at lists.naos.co.nz] On Behalf Of Simon Anderson
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 3:24 PM
To: wellylug at lists.naos.co.nz
Cc: support at cacert.org
Subject: [wellylug] CA-CERT Assurance


Hello Wellington LUG,

Are you interested in obtaining free digital certificates? If so, read on.

I am an Assurer for CA-Cert, a grass roots, community, non-profit 
certificate authority. Together with the other two Assurers for New 
Zealand (Kevin Sartorelli and Jonathah Ah Kit) we propose to attend a WLUG 
meeting for the purpose of CA-Cert assurance if there is sufficient  
interest amongst you.

http://cacert.org

CA-Cert is a relatively new project, based on the assumption that security 
should be available to all and that cost does not equate with quality. 

CA-Cert has seen rapid adoption during it's short life, particularly for 
those that cannot justify the cost or are unhappy with the service of 
commercial certificates but are unsatisfied by "self signing." CACert 
expects the Mozilla Foundation to include it's certificate in the next 
major release of it's Browsers, as discussions to this end have been 
underway for some time.

CA-Cert has multiple levels of trust. Users accumulate "Assurance points" 
to buil up trust, with the following thresholds;

50 Points - Named User
100 Points - Base Assurer
150 Points - Full Assurer

Assurers are capable of assigning Assurance points to other users, up to a 
maximum of 35 points so a named certificate ratified by CACert for your 
email or server services requires you to obtain assurance from at least 
two individual Assurers (though there are other methods of proving your 
identify supported by CACert.)

Assurance points can be obtained in several different manners, these are 
discussed on the website. The easiest method is to physically meet with an 
Assurer and prove your identity via government issued photographic I.D., 
such as a driver's license or Passport. This is why the three of us 
propose attending a WLUG meeting, as prospective CA-Cert users can get all 
of this out of the way in one fell swoop and become named users or even 
Assurers. Here's how;

Step 1. Join CA Cert.

Register as a user on the CA-Cert website. CA-Cert will confirm your email 
address in the usual manner.

Step 2. Confirm your identity to an Assurer

Bring a government issued photographic I.D., a photocopy of it and your 
CA-Cert username. The Assurers will verify your identity, fill out a form 
for you to sign, confirm the details with CA-Cert and give you assurance 
points.

Step 3. Issue yourself certificates to your heart's content.

As I mentioned above, the three of us are happy to attend a WLUG meeting 
for Step 2. If there is enough interest, which you should indicate by 
emailing me.

If there is not enough interest or if our attendance at your LUG meeting 
is inappropriate, those interested in CA-Cert should contact us 
individually to arrange Assurance. Our details are on the site.

Regards,
Simon. 

-- 
--
Simon Robert Anderson		Mo: +64 (0) 21 891 826
--


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