Increasing online security by facilitating the deployment of digital certificates
On 1st May 2020, GÉANT launched the 4th generation of its Trusted Certificate Service (TCS). This service is offered in partnership with Sectigo, one of the largest global Certificate Authorities.
TCS takes advantage of a bulk purchasing arrangement whereby participating national research and education networking organisations (NRENs) may issue close to unlimited numbers of certificates provided by a commercial CA at a significantly reduced price.
The five main types of certificates available are:
- SSL certificates – for authenticating servers and establishing secure sessions with end clients.
- Grid certificates – for authenticating Grid hosts and services (IGTF compliant).
- Client certificates – for identifying individual users and securing email communications.
- Code signing certificates – for authenticating software distributed over the internet.
- Document signing certificates – for authenticating documents from Adobe PDF, Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, and LibreOffice.
Accessing TCS
Each NREN will have access to TCS via it’s own Certificate Manager portal. For details of all the current participants in TCS, please see the TCS wiki: https://wiki.geant.org/display/TCSNT/TCS+wiki+%282020%29+Sectigo
More information
The TCS wiki with more detailed information is at: https://wiki.geant.org/display/TCSNT/TCS+wiki+%282020%29+Sectigo
To find out more about TCS, please contact the TCS Service Owner (tcs-so@lists.geant.org).
At a glance
Users
TCS provides NRENs with cost-effective and easy to use management of digital certificates. Currently, over 30 NRENs benefit from participation in TCS.
Key Facts
TCS is provided in partnership with Sectigo one of the leading Certification Authorities worldwide.
Quick Links