Final plans are in process for establishment of the faculty Electronic Bulletin Board, sponsored by the Faculty Newsletter. Mid-October is the projected on-line date, as issues of authentication and verification have been resolved.

In order to access the Bulletin Board it will be necessary for all faculty to obtain MIT Web Certificates. Certificates both authenticate user and Web server, and support the public/private key technology that encrypts data as it is sent. Two types of certificates will be needed to gain entry to the Bulletin Board; a site certificate and a personal certificate.

A site certificate assures that the server you are connecting to is the one it claims to be, not an imposter. A personal certificate verifies to the server that you are who you claim to be; when you get a personal certificate, you also get a private encryption key.

These two certificates are not paper documents. They are digital files stored as preferences in your Web browser. To get them, you must go through a multi-step, Web-based process.

For more information on obtaining certificates please see Web Certificates at MIT at http://web.mit.edu/is/help/cert/toc.html.