CWA 14172-1:2004

This document provides the rationale for the guidance on conformity assessment concerning the following services, processes, systems and products related to electronic signatures:
· Certification Authority services and processes concerning public key infrastructure management, information security management, and organisational reliability related to the life-cycle management of Qualified Certificates (Work Area C - ETSI SEC ESI WG) - ref. standard ETSI TS 101 456 V1.1.1 (2000-12) - "Policy requirements for certification authorities issuing qualified certificates";
· Trustworthy systems managing certificates for electronic signatures, Work Area D - E-Sign - ref. CWA 14167;
· Signature creation applications, Work Area G1 - E-SIGN - ref. CWA 14170;
· Procedures for electronic signature verification, Work Area G2 - E-SIGN - ref. CWA 14171;
· Secure Signature Creation Devices (Work Area F - E-SIGN) - ref. CWA 14168 and CWA 14169.
The present series of guidance documents is applicable to independent bodies, assessors, evaluators, and testing laboratories involved in assessing conformance to the standards resulting from these work areas, as identified above. It will serve also as helpful guidance to certification-service-providers, manufacturers and operators in the development of their services, processes, systems and products. The use of these documents is intended to achieve harmonisation of interpretations of the requirements specified in the standards listed in Annex I, section 'References', of this document.