Disclosure Records of Recognized Certification Authorities

Disclosure Record for Digi-Sign Certification Services Limited

(This is page 35 of the disclosure record for Digi-Sign Certification Services Limited (Digi-Sign) maintained by the Government Chief Information Officer (GCIO) under section 31(1) of the Electronic Transactions Ordinance (Cap. 553) (ETO).Click this link to go back to page 1 of the disclosure record.)

Assessment Report and Statutory Declaration in respect of the Issuance of Personal (Remote) ID-Cert Class 12 Certificate

Digi-Sign planned to issue a new type of recognized certificate, namely Personal (Remote) ID-Cert Class 12 certificate. The issuance of this new type of recognized certificate will, among others, involve the following changes:

a) new operational procedures to handle remote application via Remote Signing Service Providers (“RSSPs”), and electronic submission of certificate signing requests and transfer of certificates between Digi-Sign and RSSPs;

b) changes for network connections between Digi-Sign and RSSPs;

c) new arrangement to verify the identity of the certificate applicants;

d) change in the generation and management of key pairs; and

e) new agreement to cover the roles, responsibilities and obligations of the parties involved in the issue of the certificate.

The GCIO considered that the changes involved in the issuance of the new certificate are major changes. In this light, the GCIO had, by notice given to Digi-Sign, required Digi-Sign to furnish to the GCIO an assessment report and a statutory declaration pursuant to section 43A(1) of the ETO. In this connection, Digi-Sign arranged the preparation of an assessment report produced by an independent assessor as well as furnished a statutory declaration made by a responsible officer of Digi-Sign in respect of the issuance of Personal (Remote) ID-Cert Class 12 certificate.

In accordance with section 43A(3) of the ETO, the GCIO must publish in the disclosure record for Digi-Sign as a recognized certification authority (CA) the dates of and the material information in the assessment report and statutory declaration. Only those parts of the report and statutory declaration containing material information are herewith published.

Assessment Report

(A) Date of the Report

• The date of the report is 18 March 2020.

(B) Material Information

Recognized CA practices

1. In the assessor's opinion, having regard to Digi-Sign's proposed issuance of Personal (Remote) ID-Cert Class 12 certificate, in all material respects,
   1. the management assertions in respect of Digi-Sign's capability to comply with the sections of the ETO and the Code of Practice (see Note 1) set out in Appendix 3 (see Note 2) of the assessment report are reasonable. In particular, Digi-Sign is capable of:
      1. disclosing its business practices in its Certification Practice Statement(s) in accordance with the ETO and the Code of Practice and providing its services in accordance with its disclosed business practices;
      2. complying with the requirements in respect of the use of a trustworthy system to support its operations in accordance with sections 21 (4)(b), (c) and (f) and 37 of the ETO and the Code of Practice; and
      3. complying with the requirements in respect of recognition of its certificates in accordance with sections 36, 37, 39, 40, 44 and 45(1) of the ETO and the Code of Practice.
   2. no information came to the attention of the assessor during the course of the assessment that would indicate that the management assertions in respect of Digi-Sign's capability to comply with the sections of the Code of Practice set out in Appendix 4 (see Note 3) of the assessment report are not reasonable;
   3. based on the conclusions drawn in paragraphs (a) and (b) above, the management assertions in respect of Digi-Sign's capability to comply with the provisions of the ETO applicable to a recognized CA and the Code of Practice are reasonable.

2. The assessor has covered and examined the provisions of the ETO and of the Code of Practice as set out in Appendix 5 of the assessment report (see Note 4) and considers them to be explanatory material and statement of facts. The assessor confirms that these provisions would not cause any material impact to the conclusions of the assessment report.

Potential liabilities

3. In the assessor’s opinion, in all material respects, the management assertions that Digi-Sign has implemented and maintained appropriate procedures to determine and manage its potential liabilities in relation to the issuance of certificates are reasonable.

Statutory Declaration

(A) Date of the Statutory Declaration

• The date of the declaration is 26 March 2020.

(B) Material Information

• Having regard to Digi-Sign's planned issuance of Personal (Remote) ID-Cert Class 12 certificate, a responsible officer of Digi-Sign declared that Digi-Sign was capable of complying with the provisions of the ETO and the Code of Practice as specified in paragraph 2 of Appendix of Annex I of the notice from GCIO dated 21 October 2019 (see Note 5).

Notes

1. Code of Practice for Recognized Certification Authorities (version 3.0) issued under section 33 of the ETO.
2. The Appendix 3 of the assessment report is extracted as follows:

3. The Appendix 4 of the assessment report is extracted as follows:

4. The Appendix 5 of the assessment report is extracted as follows:

5. Paragraph 2 of Appendix of Annex I of the notice is reproduced below for reference:

6. The information of this disclosure record is disclosed in accordance with section 31(2) of the ETO.