The
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced a new certificate authority (CA)
initiative called Let’s Encrypt which was put together with Mozilla, Cisco,
Akamai, IdenTrust and University of Michigan Researchers. TerraSwarm PI, Alex Halderman (UMich), is one
of the core team working on the Let’s Encrypt CA and agent software.
The
goal of Let’s Encrypt CA is to clear the remaining barriers to transition the
Web from HTTP to HTTPS so that every website is HTTPS by default. It is
scheduled for launch in 2015 and will automatically issue and manage free certificates for any website that needs
them.
The
main obstacle to deploying HTTPS in the past has been the complexity, bureaucracy and cost
of the certificates required by HTTPS. Let’s Encrypt will reduce encryption set
up time dramatically and will employ a number of new technologies to manage
secure automated verification of domains and issuance of certificates. It will be operated by a new non-profit organization called the Internet Security ResearchGroup (ISRG).
To
read more about Let’s Encrypt and the technologies being used to manage secure
automated verification of domains and issuing certificates, go to “Launching in2015: A Certificate Authority to Encrypt the Entire Web”.
