TWCA

Taiwan's securities houses, banks and insurers have long taken their digital certificates from one private issuer, Taiwan-CA Inc., known as TWCA. The company was set up in December 1999, under the name Financial Network CA, with approval from the Ministry of Finance, by the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corporation, Financial Information Service Co., a government network operator and private IT firms. It took its present name in February 2000 and has a registered capital of NT$300 million.

Root CA for the financial sector

In April 2002 the Bankers Association of the Republic of China chose TWCA to run the top-level certification authority for the finance industry, and in the same year it became the first certification authority approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The company says it holds more than 80% of the market for financial and securities certificates and calls itself the largest private certificate issuer in the country. It also took part in running the Ministry of the Interior's citizen certificate centre. Its first certificates for tax filing and e-invoicing followed in 2004 and 2009.

TLS/SSL certificates and certificate automation

TWCA sells SSL server certificates, including extended validation, and also AP and RA server certificates, S/MIME certificates, and certificates for securities reporting, e-invoicing and bank file transfer. Its audits include WebTrust for CA, EV SSL, baseline requirements for SSL, network security and S/MIME, and it joined the CA/Browser Forum in 2010. Because the forum is shortening the validity of TLS certificates, the company markets MSSL 2.0, a self-service kit with an agent, ACME protocol support, deployment scripts and an information platform, aimed at firms of any size. Its notices to customers cover certificate chain changes and replacements.

Mobile ID, e-signing and trust services

Through its TWID identity centre, launched in November 2016, TWCA offers mobile ID checks based on mobile phone numbers with the three main operators, FIDO-based keys, zero trust device authentication, electronic signatures, insurance policy certification (ISAV), an RFC 3161 time-stamp service and Trust Mail encrypted email. The ISO certifications it lists include 27001, 27701, 20000-1 and 22301.

Key facts

Founded: December 1999 (renamed February 2000) Headquarters: 10F., No. 85, Yanping South Road, Taipei City 100011, Taiwan Capital: NT$300,000,000 registered Shareholders: Taiwan Stock Exchange, Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corporation, Financial Information Service Co., and one further corporate shareholder Customers: financial, securities and insurance firms, and businesses Products: SSL/TLS and EV SSL certificates, MSSL 2.0, S/MIME, TWID mobile ID, FIDO ID, e-signature, time-stamping, Trust Mail Certifications: WebTrust for CA, ISO/IEC 27001, 27701, 20000-1, ISO 22301 Website: twca.com.tw