Today you can declare, enforce and prove conformance to the open standards yourself. The next rung — GUARD 4 · Certified — adds independent certification by an accredited third party. It is reserved on the ladder now and will activate when the Coalition’s certification scheme is live.
No GUARD 4 · Certified marks exist today, and none can be issued until the scheme and its accredited bodies are established. This page describes how it is being designed, so adopters and assessors can plan — not a service you can buy yet.
Four rungs are live now. GUARD 4 is the reserved fifth.
A third party — not the implementer — examines the evidence and attests to conformance, rather than relying on self-declaration alone.
A certified implementation will be entitled to display a distinct GUARD 4 · Certified mark, backed by a public certificate in the registry.
Certification will be time-bound and subject to periodic review, so a mark reflects current conformance — not a one-off snapshot.
The Coalition will own the scheme and set the rules; it will not itself sell certificates in competition with the bodies it accredits.
Independent bodies will be accredited to assess and certify against the standard — a structure modelled on established conformity-assessment practice (the ISO/IEC 17065 family).
Certification will rest on verifiable evidence and can be suspended or withdrawn if conformance lapses. A mark you cannot lose is not worth trusting.
Requiring a certification level in your contracts or procurement will remain free. Accredited assessment is a service; citing the standard never is.