{"id":30573,"date":"2024-09-03T11:18:24","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T15:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/?p=30573"},"modified":"2024-09-03T11:18:24","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T15:18:24","slug":"iaf-certsearch-is-an-absolute-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oxebridge.com\/emma\/iaf-certsearch-is-an-absolute-mess\/","title":{"rendered":"IAF CertSearch is an Absolute Mess"},"content":{"rendered":"

IAF CertSearch<\/a> was heralded as the solution to the proliferation of fake ISO certificates around the globe. Yet it has failed miserably. Let’s see what’s wrong with it.<\/p>\n

Did I Do That?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ironically, CertSearch arose after I presented a speech to the Independent Association of Accredited Registrars (IAAR<\/a>) in the US, a weirdo cabal of certification and accreditation bodies that is definitely, most certainly, not involved in any illegal price-fixing. (Snort.) At that meeting, I implored ANAB and others to create a universal database of certificates to stop the flood of fake ones. Bob King<\/a>, the head of ANAB, Reg Blake<\/a> of BSI, and Pierre Salle<\/a> of IAAR all dismissed the speech as paranoid rambling. They didn’t agree that “certificate mills<\/em>” would ever become a problem.<\/p>\n

History proved them wrong about five minutes after that meeting, and now their number one competition is the growth of fake certs.<\/p>\n

Present at that meeting, however, was ANAB’s then-VP, Randy Dougherty, who was also heading up the IAF at the time. Randy went back and talked to his friend, software developer Jerry Norris, about creating the universal database. At some point, IAF kicked Norris to the curb and farmed the project out to Quality Trade in Australia. And those clowns promptly fucked it all up.<\/p>\n

Quality Trade’s product eventually became CertSearch for IAF and a UKAS-branded version called CertCheck, for the UK. (Yeah, it was always weird that UKAS got exclusive access to the CertSearch code, while no other IAF members did. So much for not playing favorites, eh, IAF?)<\/p>\n

Now, to be clear, I have no proof<\/strong> <\/em>that all of this started after my speech at IAAR. But the timing and attendance at that meeting certainly suggest this.<\/p>\n

Really Bad Code, No Basic Features<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The huge issue with CertSearch is the absolutely low level of tech used in the thing. It’s as if someone created a MySQL database back in 2002 and thought, sure, let’s do that in the 2020s as soon as my AOL account boots up. Then, because they were either spiteful or incompetent, the removed basic features a 2002 web database would have already had.<\/p>\n

So, what features are missing or broken? Let’s take a look:<\/p>\n