DigiCert deploys one billion CI Plus certificates across devices

DigiCert, a global digital trust provider, has announced that over one billion DigiCert CI Plus certificates have been deployed across a range of devices. The certificate system bolsters Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)-based common trust standards throughout the television industry ecosystem. A significant achievement, this achievement underscores the importance of PKI as a trustworthy base, securing consumers, content owners, and television manufacturers.

DigiCert and CI Plus dislosed that the DigiCert CI Plus certificates have provided PKI-supported common trust standards across the varied television industry. The CI Plus (Common Interface Plus, or CI+) is a technical extension of the original Digital Video Broadcasting standard and offers additional protection for pay-TV content. Importantly, it offers pay-TV broadcasters in Europe a route to directly deliver protected services to TV sets, bypassing the need for an additional set-top box.

According to Richard Hall, Vice President of Customer Success at DigiCert, "Most people would not have predicted how dramatically the TV landscape would evolve when the CI Plus specification was developed in 2008." The specification, over time, has proven to be one of the primary models for common trust standards across a diverse industry ecosystem. Furthermore, with the DigiCert PKI Platform for CI Plus, manufacturers can benefit from a secure, cost-effective way to implement CI Plus standards on a large scale.

Vlaho Kostov, Chairman of CI Plus LLP shares, "CI Plus was founded at a time when TVs required an additional set-top box to access pay TV services, and the market support over the years has greatly exceeded our expectations." With wide backing from the consumer electronics (CE) industry and pay-TV operators, the cross-industry collaboration has notably been beneficial to the consumers. CI Plus looks forward to advancing its momentum with an ambition of reaching the 2 billion milestone.

CI Plus LLP is an alliance of television and Common Interface module manufacturers established to secure the delivery of encrypted broadcast television services and content in Europe. CI Plus devises a common set of specifications for content decryption, using PKI as the foundational base. Continuous testing and audits are conducted by the LLP partners to sustain trust across more than 620 registered device types and now over one billion devices.

DigiCert oversees the authoritative root of trust and supplies the provisioned certificates to the 50 licensees of CI Plus. Ensuring device identity and certification, content delivery, protection, and revocation of compromised hosts as needed are among their main responsibilities. The CI Plus specification is a result of a joint effort by consumer electronic firms Panasonic, Phillips (now TP Vision), Samsung, and Sony, as well as pay-TV technology company SmarDTV, Neotion and SMiT in association with TC TrustCenter. The assets related to CI Plus of the latter are now owned and handled by DigiCert. The specification stands as one of the earliest examples of industry collaboration among device manufacturers, and the creation of PKI-based standards to assure a trusted foundation for the future.