'Let's Encrypt' aims to drive adoption of HTTPS

Some of the world's biggest security companies are working together to develop 'Let's Encrypt' - a new certificate authority (CA) offering free and automatically renewable HTTPS web encryption.

Due to launch next summer, Let's Encrypt has been established by Mozilla, Cisco, Akamai, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, IdenTrust as well as researchers at the University of Michigan - who are working through the California-based Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).

The aim is for the CA to drive the adoption of HTTPS web encryption and to do this by making obtaining the SSL certificate as easy as clicking a button or issuing a simple shell command.

The accreditation is free to anyone who owns a web domain, certificates can be reviewed for transparency, while the security companies behind the project say that the management software installed on web servers proves that the domain holder controls the website, has obtained a browser-trusted certificate and has set it up on their web browser.

In addition, the software enables users to track when the certificate is due to expire and can also help should users want to revoke the certificate.

Cited and more on this story at SC Magazine

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