Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA) and the Australian Peak Shippers Association (APSA) wish to inform members of important upcoming changes announced by the Department of Home Affairs regarding the renewal of its Gatekeeper certificate.
The Department's existing Gatekeeper certificate will expire on 24 August 2025, and a new certificate will be introduced, valid until 2027.
On the back of some queries from members FTA would like to advise that this change has nothing to do with your own DigiCert-issued certificates. The change only relates to the public key of the Department of Home Affairs Gatekeeper certificate, which is used to encrypt messages sent to the Department and to verify messages received from them. Your organisation's own certificates issued by DigiCert remain valid and do not need to be replaced.
We have also seen communication from Cargowise as follows " This process has been fully automated in the CargoWise system, so the new Department of Home Affairs' Gatekeeper certificate will be automatically loaded into your CargoWise system for you"
If you have further questions, you might also want to check directly with your EDI software provider for additional reassurance, however the ABF has advised that an ACN is to be issued later in July to formally outline the changes.
Please see latest notice received from ABF following:
Please be reminded that the Department of Home Affairs' existing Gatekeeper certificate expires 24 August 2025. The Department will be renewing the certificate until 2027.The new certificate will apply to ICS Test messages from 30 July, and apply to ICS Production messages from 6 August 2025, after which all ICS EDI messaging clients must use the new Home Affairs certificate's public key. We encourage clients to take the opportunity to test between 30 July and 6 August.
Details about the certificate cutover are on this page: www.abf.gov.au/help-and-support/ics/integrated-cargo-system-(ics)/using-the-ics/digital-certificates
A direct link to the new certificate is: https://www.abf.gov.au/help-and-support-subsite/files/ccf-e-mail-gateway-expires-2027.zip
This change does not affect client's own Gatekeeper certificates, and there is no effect on the ICS UI.
Please refer to ACN2025/18 for details.https://www.abf.gov.au/help-and-support-subsite/CustomsNotices/2025-18.pdf
Regards,
Cargo Support
Australian Border Force
Email: cargosupport@abf.gov.au