TCS - Trusted Certificate Service
Current information on the certificate service can be found in our TCS Wiki.
GÉANT, the umbrella organization of Europe's National Research and Education Networks (NRENS), has signed a framework agreement regarding the provision and administration of X.509 certificates. GÉANT provides this Trusted Certificate Service (TCS) to all participating NRENs.
ACOnet has subscribed to this agreement and therefore is able to provide its members with several types of certificates, free of charge and in unlimited numbers. This service is offered exclusively for ACOnet participants, based on a supplementary agreement (see below).
The supplementary agreement has to be signed by an authorized person at the participant's organization. Please send the completed and digitally signed PDF form and the required enclosures by e-mail to tcs(at)aco.net (your signature must be verifiable by RTR's signature verification service). Alternatively, you can also send us the printed form with your original signature by post. In both cases we will return the digitally countersigned document by e-mail.
Types of Certificates
The Trusted Certificate Service offers several types of certificates:
- TLS/SSL Server Certificates
There are web interfaces available for requesting Server Certificates, as well as for approving such requests. The latter being the task of the TCS administrator at the respective ACOnet participant. - Client Certificates
Client Certificates serve to identify individual users and may be used to sign e.g. e-mails or PDF documents. - Code Signing Certificates
Code Signing Certificates serve to confirm the authenticity of software distributed over the Internet.
Further information
More details on the various types of certificates and on the proper procedures to obtain them can be found on the wiki help pages. For further information please consult the FAQs. All relevant documents (e.g. Certification Practice Statements, Terms of Use) are available in GÉANT's TCS Repository.
In case of any questions please contact tcs(at)aco.net.