Feb 19, 2024

PersonalSign Products BR changes, and Impacts

Overview

The article goes through the BR changes, Impacts, and Solutions/Alternatives to the queries related to Various PersonalSign S/MIME Certificate types:

PersonalSign1 (PS1), PersonalSign2 (PS2), PersonalSign 2 Dept. (PS2 Dept.), PersonalSign 2 Pro (PS2 Pro)

After evaluating the impact of the S/MIME BRs changes that come into effect on September 1, 2023, GlobalSign has decided to discontinue PersonalSign 2 (PS2) in all regions and (PS2 Pro) in all regions except the EU region, effective August 21, 2023. The other PersonalSign S/MIME Certificates, like PS1 and PS2 Dept. will continue to be offered.

Please take a look at the table below for a detailed understanding of PS Certificates and Impacts of S/MIME Br changes:

Note: PS2 won’t be available after August 21, 2023, so not mentioned in the table below. Certificates ordered before August 28 will not be issued after September 1, 2023. Please cancel and place a new order.

BRs Impacts on PersonalSigns

Scenarios (After 21st August, 2023)	PS1	PS2 pro	PS2 Dept.
Product Availability	Yes	Yes (Only for EMEA)	Yes
Certificate is cancelled if not downloaded in 30 days from the order date	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reissuance of certificates issued before 28th Aug, 2023	Yes	No	No
Renewal for certificates issued before 28th Aug, 2023	Yes	No	No
Organization Unit Field on new orders	Not available	No	No
Organization Identifier required	No	Yes	Yes
Common Name(CN) Field	No	Personal Name or email address	Organization Name or email address
SMIME BRs Policy Object Identitifier in End Entity certificates	Yes [mailbox validated Object Identifier]	Yes [Sponsor Validated Object Identifier]	Yes [Organization Validated Object Identifier]
New S/MIME ICA, R6	Yes	Yes	Yes
Addition of Organization Identifier in API Request	No	Yes	Yes
Removal of support for Organization Unit in API request	Not available	Yes [if provided, value will be ignored]	Not available
Addition of SANRFC822, Email Address & Email Field in API request	No	No	No
Increase length of PKCS12 Password to 17 digits and generating the same via auto generation via APIs and User Interface	Yes	Yes	Yes
Validation of mailbox control via email using random value challenge needs to be obtained in 24 hours	Yes	Yes	Yes
Face to Face or real time video verification for new certificate	No	Yes	No

 

For PS2 and PS2 Pro (for other regions than the EU), as an alternative, we would like to recommend:  

• If you are currently using PersonalSign 2, switch to a PersonalSign 1 Certificate. This option minimizes friction in the verification process and demands less effort on your part to acquire the Certificate.
• If you are using PersonalSign 2 Pro, then EPKI PersonalSign Certificates would be suitable. This solution can support one to multiple users in the organization through a single Enterprise account and provides a faster turnaround for the issuance of PersonalSign Certificates. 

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to our customers and thank you for your continued cooperation and understanding.

For further queries on issuance, or renewal, etc. kindly contact GlobalSign Support.