Let’s Encrypt Is 10
Josh Aas (in 2014, via Hacker News):
For many server operators, getting even a basic server certificate is just too much of a hassle. The application process can be confusing. It usually costs money. It’s tricky to install correctly. It’s a pain to update.
Let’s Encrypt is a new free certificate authority, built on a foundation of cooperation and openness, that lets everyone be up and running with basic server certificates for their domains through a simple one-click process.
From my perspective, they delivered just what they promised.
Previously:
- Peter Eckersley, RIP
- Some Web Sites Will Stop Working With El Capitan and Older
- Google’s HTTP “Not Secure” Warning
- Google and HTTP
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I would say Let’s Encrypt is in contention for the best thing to happen on the Internet in the last ten years.
I had to deal with https certificates before it, and it was a nightmare of paid companies and convoluted processes. Let’s Encrypt free, simple, automated system is transformative. It is especially important in that it helps smaller web sites the most, pushing back against the tide of the Internet being swallowed up by a handful of large sites.
Mmm. I'm glad LetsEncrypt exists, given what came before. And yes, the fact that anyone can deploy a TLS-enabled server (especially for non-HTTP protocols) is truly wonderful.
But the ongoing failure of both CACert.org and DANE are tragedies, and still ultimately illustrate the immense centralisation at the heart of Internet operations, of which the (extremely broken) CA model and LetsEncrypt are a part. :(
