The Certification Scheme

The purpose of the Certification Scheme is to meet the need of the authorities and of industry for a cost-effective and efficient security evaluation and certification of IT-products and systems. All assessment is carried out by an independent third party. This should contribute to confirm the confidence to and increase the level of security in IT products and systems.

Other important goals of the Scheme is:

• to increase the security level in Public sector
• to make assurance to e-commerce and other communication nationally and internationally
• to contribute to make Norwegian IT-Industry competitive abroad
• to simplify the procurement by trust to the fact that predefined evaluation assurance levels are met.

Organisation

SERTIT is a part of the Norwegian National Security Authority (NSM). The Ministry of Defence has after consultation with the Ministry of Justice and the Police and the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform appointed an advisory board for SERTIT.

The members of SERTIT's advisory board are:

• Ingvild Myhre, Rådgiverne LOS (Chair)
• Ole Tom Seierstad, Microsoft Norge AS (Vise chair)
• Cort Archer Dreyer, Ministry of Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs
• Anne M. Reinsnes, Telenor ASA
• Bjørn Vargmo, Nets Norway AS
• Lasse Andresen, ForgeRock
• Harald Bergmann, The Norwegian Industrial Safety and Security Organisation
• Runa Opdal Kerr, Norsk Gjenvinning Norge AS.

The Ministry of Defence has appointed head of SERTIT, Kjell Bergan (NSM) and chief engineer Lars Borgos (NSM) as the secretariat for the avisory board.

History

In autumn 1997, a fact-finding group under the Norwegian Council for IT Security prepared a report, recommending the establishment of a scheme for certification of IT Security for products and systems. The Government decided to establish the scheme in accordance with the recommendations. On the basis of Proposition No. 1 to the Storting (the budget proposition) (1998-1999) for the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the former Security Division of Headquarters Defence Command Norway was provided with an allocation via the Fiscal Budget for 1999 to cover the cost of establishing SERTIT and operating the Scheme. The Ministry of Defence took over the budgetary responsibility from 2000.