*gulp* I stand corrected... It seems incomprehensible that the two main
certifing companies are now actually one and the same. I don't deal with
secure certificates directly myself, so as far as I knew, Thawte were a
South African based company...
hey ho
--
Alex Kells <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Frontier Internet Hostmaster
Frontier Internet Services Limited http://www.frontier-internet.ltd.uk
Tel: 020 7510 4713 Fax: 020 7531 9930
All statements made are subject to Frontier's Terms and
Conditions of Business which are available upon request.
-----Original Message-----
From: Hostmaster [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2000 12:19
To: Alex Kells; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: Fwd: New Cert Authority - Are you listening OpenSRS?
Thawte is owned by Verisign/NetSol, an American Company.
Prior to the purchase, Thawte were a South African company.
Being based in South Africa, Thawte were *free* to do things
(Cryptographically) that American companies (*surprise*) can NOT do -
things like exporting Crypto, etc. This is the advantage for OpenBSD to be
in Canada.
Tucows are in a serendipitous situation NOW. With the majority of
ISP/hosting domain business in their hands, and being Canadian, they are
*free* to export Crypto.
The September expiry of RSA's patent has come and gone. So the time is
right now for "OpenSomething" with respect to certs. The Freecerts project
is at the mooment focused on PGP certs, very different than getting into
MSIE and Netscape as default certs. Since Tucows distribute a large number
of the customized versions of the browsers, it would not be insurmountable
to place their CA in the defaults of the customized browsers. Tucows has
*now* the momentum to put this in place - the timing is right now.
Guys, I've been urging you to move on this since before OpenSRS went live...
Thawte and Verisign and NSI are all the same company - We all know Verisign
and NSI are greedy. Now that Thawte are owned by Verisign - no innovation
Remember Wildcard certs? For those who don't know, you could once upon a
time buy a *.domain.com cert from Thawte for $125, covering the many
hostnames you may have on a machine. This is how thawte endeared itself to
hosting companies btw.
Guess what? Since Verisign bought Thawte (two days after the deal was
signed) the Wild card certs are gone from their web site. You can still get
one at USD 525 (around) if you call and ASK for it-- but it will probably
drop from the offerings *completely* soon. If you host web sites, this is a
BIG concern.
The *ONLY* reason these guys are not in anti-trust court is that Thawte are
South African, not American. Ironic but true.
Not asking you guys to tip your hand, but it is very interesting to see
what others who are clue-full also ask you to move to-- an alternative to
Thawte.
PS- from a few off the record conversations with Thawte employees, the
sentiment for them as well is that it is fundamentally *wrong* to be owned
by Verisign. Their future is tentative at best. Not meant to deride Thawte
as I like the Organisation very much, but they are a conquered people.
At 11:30 AM 11/27/00 -0000, Alex Kells wrote:
>i don't believe Thawte is anything to do with Verisign - Verisign issue
>their own certificates under the name of, um, Verisign.
>
>But agreed on the NetSol :-)
>
>Alex
>
>--
>Alex Kells <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Frontier Internet Hostmaster
>Frontier Internet Services Limited http://www.frontier-internet.ltd.uk
>Tel: 020 7510 4713 Fax: 020 7531 9930
>All statements made are subject to Frontier's Terms and
>Conditions of Business which are available upon request.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>Sent: Saturday, November 25, 2000 17:06
>To: Alex Kells
>Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: RE: Fwd: New Cert Authority - Are you listening OpenSRS?
>
>
>
>On Fri, 24 Nov 2000, Alex Kells wrote:
>> Why are RSPs not able to offer secure certificates? We do that just fine
>> via Thawte...
>
>I believe many would prefer to have no business dealings with Verisign,
>this includes Verisign owned companies: Thawte and Network Solutions.
>
>
