Request a personal certificate

All employees of Wismar University of Applied Sciences can apply for a personal certificate in order to:

encrypt emails (only the recipient can read the email)
sign emails (the recipient can ensure that the email comes from the sender and has not been changed)
digitally sign documents (internal documents approved for digital signature)
to authenticate at certain services

The university verifies and guarantees the authenticity of the certificate.

The information for certificate holders, which you shpould familiarise yourself with, are unfortunately only available in German: https://www.pki.dfn.de/fileadmin/PKI/Info_Zertifikatinhaber.pdf
If you have a question about their content, contact us via IT Support (see contact box on the right).

The ITSMC points out that the application for a personal user certificate and its storage may only be carried out using the personal user ID and only on an official device.

Apply for a certificate

Open the HS Wismar CA Website. You can switch the site´s language on the right.
Click Request User Certificate
Fill out the form:

Name (Given name & Surname)
Email (only WIsmar UAS adresses allowed)
Namespace (depending on your department, the longer version is preferred)
Revocation PIN (at least 8 characters long)

Note: Umlauts are not accepted. They must be replaced by the respective letter combination (e.g. ö=oe or Ö=Oe). Furthermore, titles (e.g. Dr.) are generally included in the Name attribute field (example: Max Musterfrau, Dr.). Name affixes that are listed in the official identification document (e.g. "Dr.") can be included in the CN. Name affixes not listed therein (e.g. "Prof.") may not be used in the CN.

Save the application file

Save the application file. (The file has the extension *.json). You must assign a password for this. This password must not be identical to the password of the user account, but must correspond to the previously assigned lock PIN. You will need the file and the password later to collect the certificate.

Print out certificate application, sign and have it approved

Then open the certificate application (*.pdf).
This certificate application must be printed out and signed.
The certificate application is approved after personal presentation of an identity card or passport to the ITSMC.
You can find the responsible contact person at the ITSMC at the top right of this page.
The certificate will then be sent by email

ID control via video chat

This procedure is no longer available for IT security reasons. More on the background to the discontinuation of Video-Ident here.

Download the certificate

Note: The application and the import of a certificate must be done in the same browser.

After receiving an email from pki@hs-wismar.de with your certificate attached, click on the (first) link in the email to download the certificate.
You will then be directed to the web page "Pick up certificate". Here you upload the application file you saved when you applied and enter the associated password.
Next, you click on "Save certificate file".
Then a new window opens for downloading the certificate file. Now enter the previously selected password so that the certificate file is protected, then click on "Download". The password must also be entered later in order to be able to use the certificate for encrypting or signing emails.
After this step, the certificate file ***.p12 is downloaded. The certificate can then be imported into the browser or mail programme.

The issued certificate is valid for 36 months and must be renewed thereafter. The user will be informed in advance by email.

The personal user certificate may only be stored on official Wismar UAS devices and must be protected against access by third parties and against loss.

If the certificate is lost, it cannot be used to decrypt encrypted content. This also applies to expired certificates, so they should not be deleted carelessly!