By: Christine Martz
Meaning of CPS - "Certification Practice Statement", is
a public statement of describes the practices practices that a
Certification Authority employs for issuing, renewing, revoking
and validating Digital Certificates and for supporting reliance
on Certificates.
A CPS expands on the Certificate
Policies of a particular Certification Authority. It should be
a detailed and comprehensive technical and procedural document
that regards the operation of the supporting infrastructure.
“…A more detailed description of the practices followed by a CA in
issuing and otherwise managing certificates may be contained in a
certification practice statement (CPS) published by or referenced by
the CA. According to the American Bar Association Digital Signature
Guidelines (hereinafter "ABA Guidelines"), "a CPS is a statement of
the practices which a certification authority employs in issuing
certificates."” [The Internet Society]
“…A specialized form of administrative policy
tuned to electronic transactions performed during Digital Signature
Certificate management. A Certificate Policy addresses all aspects
associated with the generation, production, distribution, accounting,
compromise recovery and administration of digital certificates.” [Controller of Certifying Authorities India]
“…A Certification Practice Statement is a document
stating the practices that a particular Certification Authority, such
as Digital Signature Trust (DST), employs to issue and manage certificates.
The statement may define the practices, procedures, and requirements to
implement a particular certificate policy.”[Digital Signature Trust]
“…If a certification practice statement is not already well-known
or agreed upon by the parties to aparticular transaction, widely accepted by
usage and generally well-known in the trade, or a matter of widely known custom
and/or relevant national law, its form should be optimised to provide notice to
relying parties and for efficient reference and utilisation. A certification
practice statement need not necessarily be documentary in form; however, its
expression should provide for a reasonably high degree of readability,
accessibility, and efficiency. It should also make advantageous use of
electronic means of delivery and presentation, if electronic means are
contemplated for the transaction or material to it, in order to reasonably
facilitate automated processing and/or computer-assisted look-up of important
terms. A certification practice statement functions mainly as notice of
a certifier's practices in issuing certificates, and a certifier acts
untrustworthily and perhaps even in bad faith if an important portion of a
certification practice statement is unreasonably obscure.” [International Chamber of Commerce]
