General Concepts Issuing bodies are the starting point: they provide specimen information. Specimens represent any form of authentication or authorisation attribute. •Authentication: proof the authenticity of something. •Authorisation: provides access to some procedure. •Both functions can be combined. •Examples: stamps, seals, signatures, certificates, guarantees, ... Specimen information exists only in the scope of its issuing body: it is part of its identity. An incident always pertains to a specimen. The incident categories reflect what can happen with authentication and authorisation attributes. A revocation record always pertains to a specimen: used for premature abrogation of a specimen. System Concepts All information is stored in a transactional database, which is operated in the Data Centre. The user-interface is completely web-based. Only a browser is needed and tools for viewing the attachments (normally only Acrobat Reader). Filled in forms can be saved for later usage. The data is private until it is explicitely published. Publication of data automatically leads to a notification being sent to the correspondents. The history of changes is kept by the system. Each publication leads to a new version. Validity Periods Organisations and specimens have them. They have a start-date and an optional end-date. Without end-date the validity is eternal. If the start-date is arbitrary in some situation, one can be freely chosen. This would normally be a sufficiently old date such as 1/1/1970. The validity period of a specimen must lie within the one of its issuing body. So, for example, if the issuing body has an end-date, its specimens also must have an end-date. Otherwise they would be valid beyond the end of their issuing body. Organisations It is a classical record with co-ordinates. It has a validity period, the end-date of which is optional. Any organisation can be entered. It doesn't have to be related to anything. Three additional roles are available: •Issuing body: an organisation which defines the authentication or authorisation attribute and provides specimen information about it. •National administration: the correspondents in the dissemniation process. •Verification address (Proof of origin only): an organisation which can establish authenticity. Entering An Organisation Staring from the main menu the following steps are required: 1Select "New" in the "Organisation" section. 2Select a country in the country list. 3The following fields are mandatory: 1Name: together with the country code this identifies the organisation. 2Start of Validity: expresses from which moment the organisation has a meaning. See also Validity Periods. 3Postal Address 4Phone 4Optionally tick some roles. 5Choose for "Save for later use": this places it in the "Work in Progress" area.