In 2015, TF-CSIRT began a review of the Trusted Introducer services in order to determine the best approach to offering the service in the future, with a view to a potential new procurement of the service starting in 2016.  To support the review, a Review Group of members of the community was established and met at various points over a year from May 2015 to May 2016 to discuss requirements.  All of the meeting minutes and decisions from the TI Review groups are available online.

The group started by reviewing each of the functional elements of the TI service and considering whether this represented the community requirements for a TI service. This resulted in an Request for Comments to the community on the proposals of the TI Review Group.

In Phase 2, the remit was broadened to look at more strategic issues about the shape of Trusted Introducer and TF-CSIRT in the future.  This culminated in a workshop at the TF-CSIRT meeting in Riga in 2016.   A useful summary of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the community based on the discussions at the workshop is available.

Following on from the Riga workshop, the following announcement was made to the community:

As you may be aware, TF-CSIRT has recently carried out a review of the Trusted Introducer service, including both a full analysis of the current service offer and a look forward to the best possible future service delivery for Trusted Introducer and TF-CSIRT.  The review was undertaken from May 2015 to May 2016, led by a small group of volunteer community members.  Full details and documentation for the review can be found on the TF-CSIRT website: https://tf-csirt.org/tf-csirt/steering-committee/trusted-introducer-review/. The review period concluded with a special session at the 48th TF-CSIRT meeting, where members of the TI team, TI Associates and TI team representatives were invited to take part in small group consultations to discuss the findings of the review to-date and to propose next steps for TF-CSIRT.  These groups were all led by members of the TF-CSIRT Steering Committee.  A full report of the group discussions will be available shortly. A joint meeting of the TI Review Group and the TF-CSIRT Steering Committee discussed all of the findings of the TI Review, and the inputs from the group discussions, and agreed on the outcomes of the review.

It was agreed that GÉANT should move forward with a public procurement of the Trusted Introducer service, taking on board some changes and improvements to service operation suggested in the review period.  The procurement period will run from September to December 2016, with a view to having a selected supplier chosen before the end of the current service period (August 2017).  The TF-CSIRT Steering Committee have agreed to act as the tender committee for the procurement, but if any other individuals from the community would like to participate in this process they should contact the TF-CSIRT SC Chair or Secretary.

GÉANT and the TF-CSIRT Steering Committee are now in the process of managing the procurement of a new Trusted Introducer service and look forward to continuing to offer this valuable asset to the community.