[nycbug-talk] USENIX + CACert

[Bob Ippolito]

I don't think I'm going to be able to make USENIX this year, but one 
thing I've heard about that particularly interests me is that the whole 
CAcert crew is going to be there.  CAcert is the "Community-Oriented 
and Driven Certificate Authority".  Basically, they're trying to do 
what Thawte, Verisign, etc. does, but offer the services for free.  
They offer email, server, and most recently code signing certificates.

The 'problem' with CAcert (other than the fact that operating systems 
don't yet trust its root cert by default), is that in order to be fully 
authorized (get 2 year certs, name on email cert, etc.) you need to be 
verified by an existing member with assurer (or better) status.  
Unfortunately, there aren't ANY assurers in the NYC area!  Since these 
are the board members, anyone certified by them is immediately granted 
assurer status.  So, for those of you going, it would be awesome if you 
signed up for CAcert and got yourself assured, and we could have a 
little "key-signing party" at the end of the next nycbug meeting.  If 
three nycbug members become assured by board members, then that is 
enough to assign >100 points to new people, who can then assure each 
other, so that nycbug'er (who wants it) should be able to end up with 
full assurer status (assuming there's about 6 people who are 
interested, possibly less if I do the math).

-bob
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