[AusNOG] Lets Encrypt

[Matt Palmer]

On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 09:34:04AM +1000, Ernie wrote:
> https://letsencrypt.org/
> 
> My question is, will this screw up companies like Verisign/Thawte sales?

Not much, if any.  People who want cheap/free certs already, for the most
part, know where to get them from.  The more "premium" brands make their
money via the brand, offering insurance (as much of a crock as it is),
higher-validation (OV/EV) certificates, and other signalling effects that
are unrelated to the *technical* product being offered.

That being said, Let's Encrypt is a *great* initiative, and I'm 100% behind
it.  Making certificate issuance easier (to the point of being entirely
automated) via the ACME protocol will massively reduce the barrier to TLS
deployment, which can only serve to benefit the confidentiality of traffic
on the Internet.

- Matt