Growing a Tree Of Trust -- Part One

Attacking The Certificate Authority

CA systems may be the subject of attacks through several different ways. Besides hacker attacks from the outside, CA operations are vulnerable to collusion, sabotage, disgruntlement, or outright theft by employees from within.

External Attacks On The CA

External attacks attempt to steal private keys using computers located outside the physical CA System environment. They may arrive via the Internet, break-ins to private lines, or back-door methods through a Local Area Network within the CA. The break-ins might attempt to foil Web page security, try to exploit known operating system flaws, or try and gain control of the server.

Internal Attacks On The CA

At least as great a threat to private keys lies with those employees responsible for operating and maintaining the CA System. CA private keys are an attractive target to those who work with them.

CA''s can help lessen their attractiveness to internal theft by limiting their access and ensuring that that no one person has full knowledge of a complete key. Beyond storing them across several hardware devices (crypto-boxes), the environment in which the hardware itself resides should be ultra-secure. Strict access control, electronic monitoring, and intruder-detection on each device should deter even the most tenacious would-be thieves.