Assurance Policy for CAcert Community Members

Author: Ian Grigg
Creation date: 2008-05-30
Status: WIP 2008-05-30
Next status: DRAFT June 2008

0. Preamble

Definitions of terms:

Assurance

Assurance is the process by which a Member of CAcert Community (Assurer) identifies an individual (Assuree).
With sufficient assurances, a Member may (a) issue certificates with their Names included, (b) participate in assuring others, and (c) other related activities. The strength of these activities is based on the strength of the assurance.

Member

An individual who has agreed to the CAcert Community Agreement (CCA) and has created successfully a CAcert (web)account on http://www.cacert.org.

Name

A Name is the full name (first name(s), family name(s), name extensions, abbreviation of name(s), etc.) of an individual. The Name is technically spoken a string exactly taken from a governmental issued photo ID. Transliteration of characters to a character table defined by CAcert is permitted. 

Secondary Distinguishing Feature (DoB)

A Name for an individual is discriminated from similar full names by a secondary distinguished feature, as recorded on the on-line CAcert (web) account. Currently this is the date of birth (DoB) of the individual.

The CAcert Web of Trust

Each assurance claims a number of Assurance Points, applied to the assured Member or Member prospect. By combining the assurances, and the Assurance Points, CAcert constructs a global Web of Trust ("WoT").

CAcert explicitly chooses to meet its various goals by construction of a web-of-trust of all Members. This is done by face-to-face meeting, identifying and sharing claims in a network. Maintaining a sufficient strength for the web-of-trust is a high-level objective of the Assurance process.

Related Documentation

Documentation on Assurance is split between this Assurance Policy (AP) and the Assurance Handbook. The policy is controlled by Configuration Control Specification (CCS) under Policy on Policy (PoP) policy documents.
Because Assurance is an active area, much of the practice is handed over to the Assurance Handbook, which is not a controlled document, and can more easily respond to experience and circumstances. It is also more readable.

See also Organisation Assurance Policy (OAP) and CAcert Policy Statement (CPS).

1. Purpose

The purpose of Assurance is to add confidence in the Assurance Statement made of a Member by the CAcert Community.

The Assurance Statement

The following claims can be made about a person who is assured:

1. The person is a bona fide Member. In other words, the person is a member of the CAcert community, as defined by the CAcert Community Agreement (CCA).

2. The Member has a (login) (web)Account with CAcert's on-line registration and service system.

3. The Member can be determined from any certificate issued by the Account.

4. The Member is bound into CAcert's Arbitration (as defined by the CCA).

5. Some personal details of the Member (Name(s), primary and other listed email address(es), secondary distinguished feature (eg DoB)) are known to CAcert.

The confidence level of the Assurance Statement is expressed by the Assurance Points.

Relying Party Statement

The primary goal of the Assurance Statement is to meet the needs of the Relying Party Statement, which latter is found in the Certification Practice Statement (CPS) for the express purpose of certificates.

When a certificate is issued, some or all of the Assurance Statement may be incorporated (e.g., name) or implied (e.g., Membership or status) into the certificate and be part of the Relying Party Statement. In short, this means that other Members of the Community may rely on the information verified by Assurance and found in the certificate.

In particular, certificates are sometimes considered to provide reliable indications of the Member's Name. The nature of Assurance, the number of Assurance Points, and other policies and processes should be understood as limitations on any reliance.

2. The Member

Name(s)

Names in the CAcert web account should have names which are identical to those in the ID documents. 

The technical form of a Name is a string of characters. It should be exactly copied from a governmental-issued photo ID. 

Transliteration of characters to a character table defined by Assurance Officer is permitted, but the result must be 7-bit ASCII for the full Name.

In general names are handled case insensitively.

Abbreviation of second given name(s), middle name(s), titles and name extensions in the Name of the web account to one character and a dot are permitted. If the first given name in the ID document is abbreviated it the first given name in the web account Name may be abbreviated. Abbreviation in the web account Name will imply abbreviation usage in the Common Name of the issued certificate however.

The Common Name and related certificate fields in the issued certificate is dependent on the assurance of the Name in the web account. Abbreviation and transliteration handling in the CN is defined in the Certificate Implementation Policy (CIP).

If the governmental ID indicates for part of the Name a type (title, first given name, secondary given name(s), middlename(s), family name, and/or name extensions) and the Name in the web account provides the type of name field attribute, this will be assured in the Name account administration.

A Member may have multiple individual Names. For example, married name, variations of initials of first or middle names, abbreviation of a first name, different language or country variations and transliterations of characters in a name. Each individual Name must be assured to the applicable level. That is, each Name to 50 Assurance Points to be used in a certificate.
For an Assurer at least one Name must have at least to 100 Assurance Points.

Capabilities

A Member has the following capabilities derived from Assurance:

Assurance Capability table

The CAcert Policy Statement (CPS) and other policies may list other capabilities that rely on Assurance Points.

3. The Assurer

An Assurer is a Member with the following:

• is assured to a minimum of 100 Assurance Points,

• has passed the Assurer Challenge.

The Assurer Challenge is administered by the Education Team on behalf of the Assurance Officer.

The Obligations of the Assurer

The Assurer is obliged to:

• Follow this Assurance Policy;

• Follow any additional rules of detail laid out by the Assurance Officer;

• Be guided by the Assurance Handbook in their judgement;

• Make a good faith effort at identifying and verifying Members;

• Maintain the documentation on each Assurance;

• Deliver documentation to Arbitration, or as otherwise directed by the Arbitrator;

• Keep up-to-date with developments within the CAcert Community.

4. The Assurance

The Assurance Process

The Assurer conducts the process of Assurance with each Member.

The process consists of:

1. Voluntary agreement by both Assurer and Member or prospect Member to conduct the Assurance;

2. Personal meeting of Assurer and Member or prospect Member;

3. Recording of essential details on CAP form (below);

4. Examination of Identity documents by Assurer and verification of recorded details (Name(s) and Secondary Distinguishing Feature, e.g., DoB);

5. Allocation of Assurance Points by Assurer;

6. Optional: supervision of reciprocal Assurance made by Assuree (Mutual Assurance);

7. Safe keeping of the CAP forms by Assurer.

Mutual Assurance

Mutual Assurance follows the principle of reciprocity. This means that the Assurance may be two-way, and that each member participating in the Assurance procedure should be able to show evidence of their identity to the other.

In the event that an Assurer is assured by a Member who is not certified as an Assurer, the Assurer supervises the Assurance procedure and process, and is responsible for the results.

Reciprocity maintains a balance between the (new) Member and the Assurer, and reduces any sense of power. It is also an important aid to the assurance training for future Assurers.

Evidence of Assurer status
On the question of providing evidence that one is an Assurer, CAcert Policy Statement (CPS) says: The level at which each Member is Assured is public data. The number of Assurance Points for each Member is not published..

Assurance Points

The Assurance applies Assurance Points to each Member which measure the increase of confidence in the Statement (above). Assurance Points should not be interpreted for any other purpose. Note that, even though they are sometimes referred to as Web-of-Trust (Assurance) Points, or Trust Points, the meaning of the word 'trust' is not well defined.

Assurance Points Allocation.
An Assurer can allocate a number of Assurance Points to the Member according to the Assurer's experience (Experience Point system, see below). The allocation of the maximum means that the Assurer is 100% confident in the information presented:

• Detail on form, system, documents, person in accordance;

• Sufficient quality identity documents have been checked;

• Assurer's familiarity with identity documents;

• The Assurance Statement is confirmed.

Any lesser confidence should result in less Assurance Points for a Name. If the Assurer has no confidence in the information presented, then zero Assurance Points may be allocated by the Assurer. For example, this may happen if the identity documents are totally unfamiliar to the Assurer. The number of Assurance Points from zero to maximum is guided by the Assurance Handbook and the judgement of the Assurer.

Multiple Names should be allocated separately in a single Assurance. That is, the Assurer may allocate the maximum to one Name, half that amount to another Name, and zero to a third Name.

A (new) Member who is not an Assurer may award an Assurer in a reciprocal process a maximum of 2 Assurance Points, according to his judgement. The Assurer should strive to have the Member allocate according to the Member's judgement, and stay on the cautious side; a (new) Member new to the assurance process should allocate zero Assurance Points until they get some confidence in what is happening.

No Assurance process can give more than 50 Assurance Points per Name. This means that to reach 50 Assurance Points (certificate with a Name), a Member must have been assured at least once. To reach 100 Assurance Points, at least one Name of the Member must have been assured at least twice.

Experience Points

The maximum number of Assurance Points that may be awarded by an Assurer is determined by the Experience Points of the Assurer.

Assurance Points table

An Assurer is given a maximum of 2 Experience Points for every completed Assurance. On reaching Assurer status, the Experience Points start at zero.

Less Experience Points (1) may be given for mass Assurance events, where each Assurance is quicker.

Additional Experience Points may be granted temporarily or permanently to an Assurer by CAcert Inc's Board, on recommendation from the Assurance Officer.

Experience Points are not to be confused with Assurance Points.

Comment: this part still needs to be agreed.

CAcert Assurance Programme (CAP) form

The CAcert Assurance Programme (CAP) form requests the following details of each Member or prospect Member:

• Name(s), as recorded in the on-line account;

• Primary email address, as recorded in the on-line account;

• Secondary Distinguishing Feature, as recorded in the on-line account (normally, date of birth);

• Statement of agreement with the CAcert Community Agreement (CCA);

• Permission to the Assurer to conduct the Assurance (required for privacy reasons);

• Date and signature of the Assuree.

The CAP form requests the following details of the Assurer:

• At least one Name as recorded in the on-line account of the Assurer;

• Assurance Points for each Name in the identity document(s);

• Statement of Assurance;

• Optional: If the Assurance is reciprocal, then the Assurer's email address and Secondary Distinguishing Feature are required as well.

• Date, location of Assurance and signature of Assurer.

The CAP forms are to be kept at least for 7 years by the Assurer.

5. The Assurance Officer

The Committee (Board) of CAcert Inc. appoints an Assurance Officer with the following responsibilities:

• Reporting to the Board and advising on all matters to do with Assurance;

• Training and testing of Assurers, in association with the Education Team;

• Updating this Assurance Policy, under the process established by Policy on Policy (PoP);

• Management of all Subsidiary Policies (see below) for Assurances, under Policy on Policy ( PoP);

• Managing and creating rules of detail or procedure where inappropriate for policies;

• Incorporating rulings from Arbitration into policies, procedures or guidelines;

• Assisting the Arbitrator in any requests;

• Managing the Assurer Handbook;

• Maintaining a sufficient strength in the Assurance process (web-of-trust) to meet the agreed needs of the Community.

6. Subsidiary Policies

The Assurance Officer manages various exceptions and additional processes. Each must be covered by an approved Subsidiary Policy (refer to Policy on Policy => COD1). Subsidiary Policies specify any additional tests of knowledge required and variations to process and documentation, within the general standard stated here.

Examples of expected subsidiary policies are these:

• Remote Assurer Check;

• Super Assurer Policy;

• Junior Assurer Policy;

• Code Signing Policy;

• Organisation Assurance Policy and sub-policies per country or region.

Standard

Each Subsidiary Policy must augment and improve the general standards in this Assurance Policy. It is the responsibility of each Subsidiary Policy to describe how it maintains and improves the specific and overall goals. It must describe exceptions and potential areas of risk.

High Risk Applications

In addition to the Assurance or Experience Points ratings set here in and in other policies, Assurance Officer or policies can designate certain applications as high risk. If so, additional measures may be added to the Assurance process that specifically address the risks. These may include:

Additional information

Additional information can be required in process of assurance:

• Unique numbers of identity documents;
• Photocopy of identity documents;
• Photo of User;
• Address of User.

Additional Information is to be kept by Assurer, attached to CAP form. Assurance Points allocation by this assurance is unchanged. User's CAcert (web)account should be annotated to record type of additional information:

• Arbitration:

  • Member to participate in Arbitration. This confirms their acceptance of the forum as well as trains in the process and import.

  • Member to file Arbitration to present case. This allows Arbitrator as final authority.

• Additional training;

• Member to be Assurer (>= 100 Assurance Points and passed Assurer Challenge);

• Member agrees to additional specific agreement(s);

• Additional checking/auditing of systems data by CAcert support administrators;

Applications that might attract additional measures include code-signing certificates and administration roles.

Privacy

CAcert is a "privacy" organisation, and takes the privacy of its Members seriously. The process maintains the security and privacy of both parties.

Information is collected primarily to make claims within the certificates requested by users and to contact the Members.
It is used secondarily for training, testing, administration and other internal purposes.

The Member's information can be accessed under these circumstances:

• Under Arbitrator ruling, in a duly filed dispute (Dispute Resolution Policy => COD7)

• An Assurer in the process of an Assurance, as permitted on the CAP form.

• CAcert support administration and CAcert systems administration when operating under the authority of Arbitrator or under CAcert policy.