Registrant:
SAFE-BioPharma Association
82 N. Summit St., Suite 2
Tenafly, NJ 07670 USA
The SAFE-BioPharma Association is a non-profit collaborative of the global biopharmaceutical and healthcare industries, managed by Board of Directors from member firms. Association functions include: Maintaining and evolving authentication and digital signature credential standards for application to a wide variety of business processes, collaborations, federations; certifying commercial TSPs, applications and products; collaborating with regulators and policy authorities; providing a forum for best practices and shared use cases; operating a PKI “Bridge CA,” (SBCA) for interoperability; operating non-PKI credential Trust Frameworks to enable federated authentication interoperability at known levels of assurance, and representing the industry in national and international standards-development and global identity management policy-setting organizations. SAFE-BioPharma is affiliated with a broad range of governments and industry standards organizations.
https://www.safe-biopharma.org
Primary Contact:
Mollie Shields-Uehling
President and CEO
1-201-925-2173
[email protected]
Alternate Contact:
Dr. Peter Alterman
Chief Operating Officer
1-301-943-7452
[email protected]
Global PKI Interoperability
To support global interoperability of X.509 digital certificates for high assurance authentication and digital signature capabilities, SAFE-BioPharma operates a Bridge CA that serves as an interoperability hub and trust anchor for Certification Authorities that issue X.509 digital certificates to Subscribers, Organizations and Devices. Member Credential Service Providers cross-certify their issuing CAs with the SAFE-BioPharma Bridge CA at Federal Bridge Basic, Medium and Medium Hardware levels as desired. The SAFE-BioPharma Bridge CA is cross-certified at these levels with the U.S. Federal Bridge CA, contributing to a wide and deep trust infrastructure in place in all US government agencies and in other domains affiliated with the Federal Bridge CA.
In addition to cross-certification and mutual trust with the US government’s PKI infrastructure, the SAFE-BioPharma Bridge Certification Policy (SBCP) has been aligned with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standards for digital signatures under its Qualified Certification Program (QCP) so that Bridge Basic aligns with QCP Lightweight, Bridge Medium aligns with QCP Normative and Bridge Medium Hardware aligns with QCP Extended Normative. Any digital signature from an ETSI Qualified CA may be trusted by the SAFE-BioPharma Bridge CA at those comparable trust levels. Currently, digital signatures issued by Trans Sped are both ETSI Qualified and SAFE-BioPharma cross certified at Medium and Medium Hardware. Other providers are actively pursuing this dual trust capability that is unique to SAFE-BioPharma.
The SBCP also recognizes the Custom Commercial class of digital signature that is aligned with certificates issued by members of the European Bridge CA. Custom Commercial class digital signatures are not recognized in any cross-certified scheme but their use facilitates trusted digital transactions among business partners.
Cross-certification requires mapping of the applicant’s policy against the SAFE-BioPharma Bridge Certification Policy and technical profile mapping against the Bridge X.509 certificate profile. Both are completely aligned with the associated Federal Bridge CA documents. ETSI Qualified CAs wishing to cross-certify must complete an abbreviated mapping and testing process.
To Apply for Cross Certification
To apply for cross-certification with the SAFE-BioPharma Bridge CA, send an email to Dr. Peter Alterman, Chief Operating Officer, [email protected] with your request and we will arrange for you to receive the necessary documentation and support.