NEWSLETTER 07 | 2009

Dear Readers

3 million issued certificates in 3 months is a very lively start in the market for the new Common Interface Plus Standard (CI Plus). As the exclusive Trust Authority for CI Plus, TC TrustCenter provides the digital certificates required to allow CI Plus compatible consumer electronice devices, such as Integrated Digital Televisions and Set Top Boxes, access to a wide range of Pay TV Services.

The Gesellschaft für Unterhaltungs- und Kommunikationselektronik (gfu) has already summarized as follows: "The industry and network operators have widely accepted the access technology Common Interface Plus (CI Plus) for TV programs and other digital media content".

The success of CI Plus shows that digital certificates can be used wherever security in the transmission of information or the reliable authentication of units is necessary - including outside the Internet. As a result, CI Plus is at the same time also a future-orientated example of the use of public key infrastructures.

By launching Version 1.6 of the TC Enterprise ID solutions line, the main aim of TC TrustCenter was to simplify processes but at the same time maintain the greatest possible degree of flexibility for our clients. New features have been brought out that fully support this philosophy, for example individually configurable e-mail templates, the central definition of key generation guidelines and the possibility of key escrow. However, the highlight of the new version is most definitely the integration of TC Business ID for Adobe, for the convenient digital signing of your PDF documents. You are now welcome to test TC Business ID for Adobe free of charge.

We would also like to give you advance notice of an important date for the security industry in October. The IT security trade fair it-sa will open its doors for the first time in Nuremberg, Germany between October 13th and 15th, and it promises to be the security industry's autumn highlight event. We would be very pleased to welcome you at our stand in Nuremberg.

For now though, we would of course like to wish you a sunny start to the summer.

Your TC TrustCenter Team

Two months after its market launch, CI Plus (the technology for realizing the secure transmission of Premium PayTV services to integrated digital TVs, set-top boxes and personal video recorders that is supported by the consumer electronics (CE) industry) has been well received in the market.

TC TrustCenter acts as the exclusive trust and certificate authority for CI Plus-Standard. In the first two months following its introduction, eight of the largest consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers and three CAM (conditional access module) manufacturers have licensed the technology and had their products certified. TC TrustCenter has issued over 3 million certificates for these "early adopters". In addition, there is already a large number of other companies that have also expressed an interest in adopting the technology.

“These numbers indicate a real market demand for CI Plus and demonstrate that the technology is already on its way to becoming a de facto industry standard,” states Laurent Jabiol Deputy CEO and Founder of Neotion, one of the founder members of the CI Plus LLP, the industry forum who created the specification.

The Gesellschaft für Unterhaltungs- und Kommunikationstechnik (gfu) also regards the development of the standard as a positive thing: "With CI Plus, the market players are laying the basis for a broad, open terminal units market. Here, CI Plus is not an end in itself but a necessary tool for being able to meet the demands of content suppliers and network operators with respect to copy protection and the protection of minors."

TC TrustCenter is also satisfied with the success of CI Plus: “This take up has exceeded all expectation and we are hugely optimistic about the future potential of this technology and our ability to deliver high volumes as the adoption grows," confirms Dr. Artur Heil, Sales and Marketing Director EMEA of TC TrustCenter.

Further information about CI Plus:

http://www.ci-plus.com/

http://www.trustcenter.de/solutions/consumer_electronics.htm

http://www.neotion.com/

The new features of TC Enterprise ID Version 1.6 are available in the full TC Enterprise ID product range, and therefore also to our TC ID Store customers!

The most important innovations of TC Enterprise ID Version 1.6 at a glance:

TC Business ID for Adobe can be managed via TC Enterprise ID:

With immediate effect, it is now also possible to conveniently apply for and manage TC Business ID for Adobe certificates for the signing of PDF documents via the TC Enterprise ID solutions line. The user is also able to perform personalization of the tokens himself.      

Customizable E-mail templates:

Companies now have the option of customizing the E-mail templates available in TC Enterprise ID and having them changed / deactivated by the administrator in line with their respective company guidelines.

Central definition of key generation guidelines:

In the new TC Enterprise ID version, TC TrustCenter offers its clients the possibility of centrally defining the desired key generation guidelines for each certificate product. This enables companies to align the key generation guidelines with their own company specifications, and in so doing enforce a minimum level of security for the key material being used.

Key Escrow possible for security-relevant keys:

Clients who, due to legal stipulations or existing company guidelines, require the possibility of recovering keys, can now set them up as "recoverable" keys and then recover them as needed on the basis of a defined role concept.

Any questions? Please contact us.

The TC Certificate Partner Program of TC TrustCenter enables IT service providers to add to their portfolio and win clients by offering added security - all without any risk.   

TC TrustCenter offers TC Certificate partners a varied product range of SSL certificates from mail and client certificates to CodeSigning certificates. TC TrustCenter provides the right banners for easily incorporating the application links into the partner's web site. At the same time however, the complete registration and issuing process remains with TC TrustCenter. A credit to the partner's account is registered for every certificate sold.  

After 70 partners were signed up within a short space of time in the German-speaking countries, TC TrustCenter is now offering the successful program throughout Europe.
 
An overview of the advantages of the TC Certificate Partner Program:

• TC Certificate partners incur neither set-up charges nor other registration or other fees.
• Notice of termination of the partnership can be given at any time, with no hidden obligations such as minimum turnover or similar.
• The partner's commission account increases every time one of his clients orders a certificate.
• TC TrustCenter handles all processing of the certificate order transparently for the partner.  

The it-sa IT security trade fair is being held for the first time in Nuremberg from October 13th - 15th.

Make a note of these dates on your calendar now. it-sa promises to be the autumn highlight of the security industry. 80 companies have already submitted binding registrations, and another 70 have announced that they will attend. A wide-ranging program of conferences, workshops, tutorials and members' meetings will run alongside it-sa.

TC TrustCenter will also have a presence at it-sa in the Identity and Access Management Area. We would be very pleased to welcome you at our stand in Nuremberg for a personal discussion.

Further information can be found at: www.it-sa.de

Today, our professional tip is aimed at people who want to use a TC Business ID for Adobe in order to sign their PDF documents or forms digitally. Digital signatures provide evidence of copyright and that an electronic document has not been forged. TC Business ID for Adobe, enables PDF documents to be digitally signed very easily. TC Business ID for Adobe thus provides the crucial module for many possibilities in electronic process optimization.

Digital signatures allow protection against forgery of critical company information and fulfil typical requirements for quality management like safe archiving and fast availability. The uses for digitally signed PDFs are versatile. They allow the optimisation of internal workflows, the digitisation of business processes and the issuing of electronic confirmations for the online validation of credentials, test reports and statements.

For the recipient of a digitally signed PDF document, neither opening the signed document nor checking the signature will result in any additional work. The trustworthiness of TC Business ID for Adobe is automatically preset in the Adobe Reader. The information about the signature and the check is automatically displayed to the user when a digitally signed PDF document is opened.

Our "How-To Manual" contains the instructions on how to digitally sign your PDF documents. We have also compiled for you a brief set of instructions about how to apply for a TC Business ID for Adobe.

How-To Manual TC Business ID for Adobe (Token)

TC Business ID for Adobe product page

How-To-Get Manual

A new member of the TC TrustCenter team

Our Inside Sales team was strengthened on May 1st with the arrival of Ms. Andrea Steer. If you have any questions about our products, you can in future contact Ms. Steer at andrea.steer@trustcenter.de or Tel.: + 49 40 80 80 26 424.