Why CertiPath?

The rules of engagement in aviation and aerospace and defense (A&D) are rapidly evolving to accommodate the growing reality that it is indeed a global marketplace. Working with suppliers and partners in a constantly shifting model of competition and cooperation has long been a hallmark of success in the industry. But today’s pressures – regulatory, mandate-driven and economic – demand a new way of doing business together.

Collaboration across organizations, geographies and alliances has become the critical factor in moving programs from concept to reality. At the same time, the risks inherent in sharing information beyond the boundaries – both physical and virtual – have increased exponentially. In A&D, the stakes are higher, where mission-critical often means national security and information in the wrong hands can wreak havoc with peace.

In the simplest terms, it's a matter of trust. But today's information security models simply aren't up to the task. Knowing - really knowing -- who are you doing business with requires a change in how companies validate and confirm that the person on the other end of the exchange is indeed who they claim to be.

This is why CertiPath LLC was created. It provides the industry’s only public key infrastructure (PKI)-based communications bridge where information can be shared widely, securely, effectively, and affordably between partners, suppliers and customers – regardless of the size and scope of the supply chain.

CertiPath’s disruptive solution tears down the burdensome and costly company- employee- and program-centric approaches to identity assurance. Today, organizations in the U.S., U.K. and Europe including Boeing, BAE Systems, EADS, Lockheed Martin, Northrup-Grumman, Raytheon and the U.S. Federal Bridge (FBCA) are members of this fast-growing community.

With CertiPath’s highly scalable model for managing – and ensuring – identity assurance, organizations become a member of a trust fabric that engenders confidence and reliance. Internal benefits efficiency and risk-mitigation are matched externally by new opportunities to engage with a broader pool of prospective partners based on shared convictions. 

Benefits Created For the Global Supply Chain by CertiPath

These services will allow users of the CertiPath bridge to perform the following business tasks with anyone else who is part of the Bridge:

• Secure document exchange
• Collaborative engineering
• Secure e-mail
• Digital Signatures/non-repudiation of transactions
• Transaction security between systems

Basic benefits of using the CertiPath bridge or bridge-enabled Certificates

• "Buy once, reach many” customers… globally - now you can trust any CertiPath-certified digital identity.
• Assurance that others are reasonably compliant to accepted security standards/policies.

Technology

Public key infrastructure is a set of standards based systems that use mathematical techniques to provide encryption, signatures and other similar functions for authentication, confidentiality, non-repudiation and integrity. These functions are typically used for e-business applications. A key component of Public Key Infrastructure is a system called a Certificate Authority. A Certificate Authority identifies individuals and "entities" (such as an individual or a network subsystem) electronically in a legally recognized method (kind of like an electronic notary).