Trust SwissSign Certificate Authority

Trust is a basic requirement for all security models including Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). All PKIs are hierarchically organized. There are several top level Certificate Authorities that can be trusted. When you trust a a top level Certificate Authority (CA), you actually trust its Root Certificate. This Root Certificate is normally self signed. The trust is also passed down the hierarchical tree which then validates all sub certificates that are directly or indirectly signed by the Root Certificate. Furthermore you can trust a Certificate Authority for certain applications: secure email, secure servers or code signing, to name the most common ones.

Trust is an essential element in a PKI. The Certificate Practice Statement (CPS) will provide transparency to the overall processes and thus helps to improve trust. Besides this document there are the terms and conditions of the Certificate Authority itself and the laws and duties of the country in which the Authority is located.

You wonder what your trust in SwissSign can be based on? There are several documents describing the complete certification procedure also called Certificate Practice Statement, the Terms and Conditions of the Certificate Authority and last but not least the federal laws that the Certificate Authority is bound to.

Why can you trust SwissSign? Or what is the difference to other PKI vendors? Here are some reasons:

  • SwissSign operates under the highest possible security level.
  • SwissSign Bronze IDs are FREE! In contrast to most other digital ID provider, there is no commercial interest in certifying private digital IDs. Although the registration of the commercial Silver and Gold certificates have a fee to cover the basic registration costs.
  • SwissSign is based in Switzerland and runs under Swiss law.
  • SwissSign is independent. SwissSign does not use PKI software of other companies.

To trust and use SwissSign you must read and accept the Terms and Conditions. If you want to know more about the certificate process itself, take a look at the CPS. Finally import the SwissSign Root Certificate into your applications and setup the trust relationship.