GlobalSign

Key takeaways

GlobalSign belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect GlobalSign to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of GlobalSign from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

GlobalSign is a certificate authority and a provider of internet identity and security products. As of January 2015, Globalsign was the 4th largest certificate authority in the world, according to Netcraft.

History GlobalSign was founded in Belgium in 1996 and acquired in 2007 by GMO group in Japan (formerly GeoTrust Japan). In September 2011, as a precaution, GlobalSign suspended issuing authentication certificates temporarily after an anonymous hacker going by the name "ComodoHacker" claimed to have compromised their servers, as well as those of other certificate authorities. The company took the claim seriously enough to halt the signing/issuing of new certificates while investigating the claims; it resumed issuing certificates a week later. Dutch security company Fox-IT was contracted to analyze the breach and GlobalSign released a security incident report. On December 13, 2011 GlobalSign released its final report on the incident. The report concluded that while GlobalSign's own web server was breached and the certificate of this server was stolen, due to the air gap separating this web server from the certificate-issuing machine (the one holding the company's root certificate), there was no evidence of any rogue certificates issued or any customer data exposed, thus the remedial actions were limited to cancelling their own web server's certificate and patching its software. Sophos's Chester Wisniewski summarized the report and GlobalSign's response to the incident on his blog and concluded "Not only is the report thorough and convincing, but it appears that GlobalSign took every action, exactly as they should have, both during and after the incident." As of January 2015, Globalsign was the 4th largest certificate authority in the world according to the Netcraft survey. GlobalSign was the first CA to improve revocation checking for HTTPS pages through the use of a CDN, and the company was also the first to offer IPv6 compliant revocation services ("CRL"). In 2018, GlobalSign became a Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP) under the eIDAS regulation in both the European Union and the United Kingdom. In 2021, after the UK left the EU, GlobalSign was approved as the UK's first QTSP.

Services

GlobalSign's services include managed PKI platform, S/MIME certification, TLS certificates, and a cloud-based certificate manager that integrates with Microsoft's AD and user account certifications. The company also provides certificates to authenticate IoT to address authentication needs in the Internet of Everything (IoE) market and to identity management as a cloud-based service. Its PKI services can scale based on the velocity, variety, and volume of IOT platforms, and can manage the identities of millions of devices. In November 2012, GlobalSign launched an online service that allows website administrators to confirm that they have correctly configured TLS across their websites and receive actionable guidance on how to remediate any faulty or exploitable TLS configurations. The company has offices in the US, Europe and throughout Asia. In 2012, GlobalSign released its free SSL Configuration Checker. This tool lets websites check the effectiveness of their TLS configuration and provides remediation steps for websites that want to improve. In 2013, the company introduced its Auto Enrollment Gateway solution (AEG). Using AEG, companies can automate PKI management, certificate provisioning and deployment. The platform integrates with Windows Active Directory. In 2018, GlobalSign released its IoT Identity Platform. It uses PKI as its identity mechanism and is used in industries including manufacturing, agriculture, smart grid, payments, IoT gateways, and healthcare. One of the features of the platform is IoT Edge Enroll, which companies use to provision and manage the PKI-based identities. Edge Enroll provides device Registration Authority (RA), certificate lifecycle management and other support services. The platform also includes IoT CA Direct and IoT CA Connect. In May 2022, the latest version of the company's AEG platform was released. It automatically configures S/MIME certificates in Outlook for Windows using GlobalSign's cross-platform agent, XPA. XPA sets policies, and automatically enrolls, provisions, and installs certificates.

Acquisition In 2014 GlobalSign acquired Helsinki-based Ubisecure Solutions, Inc., a privately held identity and access management (IAM) software developer. Ubisecure was spun out of GlobalSign in 2016.

Industry Affiliations Certificate Authority/Browser Forum (CA/B Forum): GlobalSign is a founding member of the CA/B Forum, which was established in 2013. They are actively involved with the organization's S/MIME and server certificate working groups. Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA): GlobalSign has been a member of MISA since 2019. Cloud Signature Consortium: GlobalSign joined the consortium in 2018. Certificate Authority Security Council (CASC) - joined in 2013. Adobe Cloud Signature Partner Program

See also Advanced electronic signature Certificate signing request Code signing Cryptography Digital Signature Domain-validated certificate eIDAS Electronic signature Email encryption Extended Validation Certificate HTTPS Organization Validation Certificate Provable security Public key certificate Public key infrastructure Qualified electronic signature Root certificate S/MIME Secure Sockets Layer Self-signed certificate Transport Layer Security Web of trust x.509

Sources and references

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with GlobalSign

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what GlobalSign claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to GlobalSign before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about GlobalSign ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of GlobalSign

In research: GlobalSign appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses GlobalSign in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: GlobalSign is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Certificate authorities, Internet of things, Internet security, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for GlobalSign outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study GlobalSign in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what GlobalSign means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain GlobalSign out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is GlobalSign in simple terms?

GlobalSign is a certificate authority and a provider of internet identity and security products. As of January 2015, Globalsign was the 4th largest certificate authority in the world, according to Netcraft.

Why does GlobalSign matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study GlobalSign?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on GlobalSign.