  Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) provide enormous potential for innovation but a
precondition for this is that the issue of dependability has been addressed.
This paper presents the concept of a Digital Dependability Identity (DDI) of a
component or system as foundation for assuring the dependability of CPS. A DDI
is an analyzable and potentially executable model of information about the
dependability of a component or system. We argue that DDIs must fulfill a
number of properties including being universally useful across supply chains,
enabling off-line certification of systems where possible, and providing
capabilities for in-field certification of safety of CPS. In this paper, we
focus on system safety as one integral part of dependability and as a practical
demonstration of the concept, we present an initial implementation of DDIs in
the form of Conditional Safety Certificates (also known as ConSerts). We
explain ConSerts and their practical operationalization based on an
illustrative example.
