Francisco,
I extend my sympathy to you in trying to understand all of the issues
involved in PCAs, CAs, etc. You might be able to get a Ph.D. in Cold Fusion
somewhat faster -- are you sure you don't want to reconsider? :-)
The currently available PCAs include the RSA Commercial Hierarchy
(not quite fully launched, but almost), the RSA Low Assurance Hierarchy
(including Persona), the TIS PCA, an experimental (?) PCA being operated
by Jeff Schiller at MIT, and the COST PCA being operated by Sead Muftic
in Sweden. The IPRA is not yet operational.
I would suggest that you obtain a copy of the pem-dev archives, and start
reading. Better allocate a fair amount of time to this task -- the volume
of messages on this and allied subjects is enormous, but the archives
are an extremely valuable resource for just such a task.
(BTW - I think we all owe Dave Balenson a vote of thanks for maintaining
these archives. I think they are a unique resource, and will be increasingly
valuable over time.)
Here is a message from Dave summarizing how to obtain the current archives.
Bob
----------------------
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 94 00:07:11 -0500
From: List Master (agent: David Balenson) <pem-dev-request(_at_)tis(_dot_)com>
Subject: Starting Volume 5 of PEM-DEV archives
Sender: balenson(_at_)tis(_dot_)com
To: PEM Developer's Mailing List (PEM-DEV) <pem-dev(_at_)tis(_dot_)com>
Folks-
I have completed Volume 4 of the PEM-DEV archives, and am well into
constructing Volume 5.
As a reminder, here are the current instructions for accessing the
PEM-DEV archives:
HOW CAN I ACCESS THE PEM-DEV ARCHIVES?
The PEM-DEV archives are available via anonymous FTP. To retrieve
access the archives, please FTP to:
host: ftp.tis.com
login: anonymous
The archives are located in the directory pub/PEM-DEV/archives. Please
see the file pub/PEM-DEV/README for details.
The archives are also available via electronic mail by sending a
message to "pem-dev-request(_at_)tis(_dot_)com". The message must contain two
fields, a Subject field and a Reply-To field, which must be located and
formatted as described below:
(1) The Subject field of the message must be located in the headers of
the message, and must be formatted as follows:
Subject: get pem-dev archive volume VOL number NUM
where "VOL" is the volume number of the digest and "NUM" is the
number of that volume. Do NOT including leading zeroes. The
volume number changes when it is convenient for the maintainer, not
at specific intervals.
(2) The Reply-To field can be located either in the body or in the
headers of the message, and must be formatted as follows:
Reply-To: ADDRESS
where "ADDRESS" is your address AS IT WOULD LOOK TO MY HOST. I
will help you determine that address if you need it. If you place
the "reply-to" in the headers rather than the body, you must be
certain that it will be altered properly along the path to me so
that it reflects the proper return address.
The fifth of five volumes is currently under construction.
An index is available for each volume. It may be retrieved by
requesting number 0 of the desired volume. The index consists of a
collection of the subject lines of all messages in all the digests of
the requested volume, preceded by the digest number in which that
subject line appears.
-David Balenson <pem-dev-request(_at_)tis(_dot_)com>