Methodology

Digi-CAST™ is factual, high-quality, digital certificate and CA advice from experienced personnel that can show you how your CA should be implemented, integrated and maintained. The C-A-S-T? method was pioneered by Digi-Sign in 2004 after many years of developing and deploying CAs around the world.

The Digi-CAST™ methodology has four distinctly separate components that are adapted and designed specifically to meet your needs:

• Digi-CAST1™ - Consultation, Assessment, Security & Technical
• Digi-CAST2™ - certificate Authority Solutions Team
• Digi-CAST3™ - Compliance, Audit, Standards & Training
• Digi-CAST4™ - Continued Assessment & Security Testing

Where Digi-CAST1™ should be used on every project, CAST2™ to CAST4™ are normally used on medium to large-scale projects such as enterprise or public sector environments.

Just as there is no such thing as a typical IT environment, there is no such thing as a typical Digi-CAST™ service. Some Digi-CAST1™ projects (where we are assisting or advising on a project before it starts) can last only a few hours, whilst other projects have 4-6 weeks durations.

Digi-CAST1™ is concerned with project planning excellence, cause and affects planning, 'skills pool' analysis, personnel selection and management. The most important thing to remember about Digi-CAST™ is that the entire service is tailored to your specific needs.

Depending on the findings of Digi-CAST1™ regarding the available personnel and their skills, you might decide that you need us for some or all of the project implementation phase. As explained in the Digi-CAST1™ phase, all of this is decided at the project evaluation and planning stage.

Digi-CAST2™ is concerned with detailing the actual project as documented in Digi-CAST1™. Its concern is with personnel, availability, time lines, 'choke points' and overall project delivery. Combining your resources with ours, we begin the project and work together to a common goal.

Digi-CAST3™ is concerned exclusively with compliance and certification. The most common requests for certification are for ETSI 101 456, ISO 17799, ALGO and 1999/93/EC. There are many other requirements that can include accreditation in your country by the national accreditation board, the national telecom regulator or other third-party organisations.

These requirements are typical of a CA that wants to issue Digi-IDs™ for Machine Readable Travel Documents [MRTD], e Passports, National ID cards, Trust Centres or large scale certificate deployments for government, health, finance, insurance or banking.

National and international accreditation is normally based on ETSI, ISO, ANSI, ICAO or other standards. BS 7799 (Part 2) or ISO 17799, 1999/93/EC, ETSI 101 456, HIPAA, Sarbanes Oxley, SB 1386, Gramm-Leach Bliley, EAL, ETSI, CWA, ALGO, ICAO for MRTD and many others are all possible with Digi-CA™.

The real objective with Digi-CAST4™ is to ensure as much knowledge transfer as possible. Using the 'Train the Trainer' approach, it is expected that your organisation should be capable of maintaining your own environment and its accreditation to the highest of standards and to do this without assistance.