• KenSchumacher

Ken Schumacher

In my full-time role, I am a Unix Systems Administrator at Fermi National Accelerator Lab in Batavia, IL. I began working at Fermilab in Jan 1997. In Oct 2008, I began working with the HPC Department which oversees several large High-Performance computing clusters, primarily for use by USQCD. My group manages nearly 1700 nodes in 7 clusters. This works out to over 21,000 CPUs and 150 GPUs.

Outside of Fermilab, I am a Senior Assurer with CAcert.org. I am available for assurances in the western suburbs of Chicago. I have a local CAcert information page that should answer most questions about how to arrange to meet up with me to be assured. As a Senior Assurer, I can grant you up to 35 trust points. And I encourage all those that I assure to go through the steps of assuring me as well, once they reach the 100 point level. There is no better practice than doing an assurance for someone who is experienced and understand the process.

My experience with trusted identity and such

I have been a PGP user since 1994. I have attended several PGP Key Signing BoF¹ sessions at various LISA conferences and this has allowed me to build up quite a collection of signatures on my PGP Keys.

At the 2004 LISA conference in Atlanta GA, I signed up to host the PGP key signing BoF. I was contacted before the conference by Teus Hagen and Rudi van Drunen who were setting up a CAcert BOF session. That session was scheduled for right after the PGP session. I collected enough assurance points before the session that I was able to help with assurances at the session. We easily attained critical mass and the assurances went on into the wee hours of the night. I spent most of my free time over the next several days explaining CAcert and the assurance process in small hallway gatherings. I assured 35 people and I was assured by 24 people new to the process, helping them earn points so they could assure others.

I also led both the PGP key signing BoF and the CAcert.org BoF sessions at three recent LISA events. We assured 9 new people at the LISA'09 conference in Baltimore, MD. And we assured 8 new people at the LISA'10 conference in San Jose, CA. And we recently assured 9 new people at the LISA'12 conference in San Diego, CA 9-14 Dec 2012.

The Most Recent Events

I attended the LISA'12 conference in San Diego, CA 9-14 Dec 2012. I led the PGP key signing BoF and the CAcert.org BoF sessions. Both were held on Tuesday evening, 11 Dec 2012.

I had updated the presentation I used at LISA'10. I improved slides which introduce the CAcert.org community and describing the assurance process. There were five qualified assurers who attended and helped assure seven new community members. We emphasized mutual assurances as an excellent training experience and for new members to gain experience points. Additional information is found on the event page on the CAcert Wiki site. I was able to assist two other new members after the event and we had enough assurers around to get them up to the 100 point level. I know there was at least one assurer who earned enough experience points to reach the 150 point maximum.

I was unable to attend the LISA'13 conference. I contacted a couple friends and helped get things set up so that they could lead the PGP and CAcert BoFs. JefferyFrederick gave the presentation at LISA'13 using my LISA'12 slides as the starting point for his presentation.

My current involvement in CAcert Community

I have been doing Face-to-Face assurances since I joined CAcert in 2004. In September 2013, I was able to get some one-on-one training and complete a Co-Audit. With those accomplished, I qualified has a Senior Assurer. I was then nominated and became a TTP-Assurer. There are two of us who handle most of the TTP Assurances for the USA (including Puerto Rico). I set aside time once or twice each week for sending out and processing TTP CAP forms.

I am actively working at providing assurance opportunities locally and at conferences as I am able. In November 2013 I gave a presentation at a local computer professionals group. The topic was Identity Management with an introduction to CAcert.org. It was very well received. I recently joined several CAcert mailing lists, including the cacert-policy list. It has been a very good learning experience.

Email: <ken AT SPAMFREE cacert DOT org>

-- KenSchumacher ...

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