DigiCert

DigiCert Inc
Private company
Industry Internet security, Public key infrastructure
Founded 2003
Headquarters Lehi, Utah, United States
Key people
 CEO: Nicholas Hales, CFO/COO: Ryan Woodley
Website www.digicert.com

DigiCert Inc is a privately held, US based X.509 SSL certificate provider. As a trusted third party, DigiCert verifies the authenticity of secure websites on behalf of a web browser for the purpose of preventing online phishing scams.

As a founding member of the CA/Browser Forum, the industry standards group founded by Melih Abdulhayoğlu of the Comodo Group,[1] DigiCert assisted in the development of the Extended Validation Certificate, which provides enhanced identity verification of certificate holders.[2] DigiCert also worked in conjunction with Microsoft to develop and promote the use of subject alternate names in SSL certificates, for use with Microsoft Exchange Server.[3]

DigiCert is the largest public CA that does not issue "domain validated", "low assurance", or "instant" SSL certificates either directly or through a subsidiary brand. It primarily sells Organization Validation (OV) and Enhanced Validation (EV) SSL certificates..[4]

DigiCert Inc. is of no relation to Digicert Sdn. Bhd, a Malaysian-based certification authority that issues certificates with weak keys and had its trust revoked by web browsers.[5][6][7]

History

DigiCert was founded by Ken Bretschneider in 2003. He was named as a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2012 as a result.[8][9] He served as CEO and Chairman of the Board until he left in 2012 to head up People Water.[10] Nicholas Hales now serves as CEO of Digicert [11] which is currently majority owned by private equity firm TA Associates [12]

References

  1. ↑ How Can We Improve Code Signing?. Eweek.com (2008-05-09). Retrieved on 2013-07-26.
  2. ↑ http://www.cabforum.org/forum.html, CAB Forum Members, 2/9/2010
  3. ↑ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929395, Microsoft SAN Certificate Partners, 2/9/2010
  4. ↑ http://www.digicert.com/dv-ssl-certificate.htm, Domain Validated SSL vs High Assurance, 1/7/2014
  5. ↑ Entrust Bulletin on Certificates Issued with Weak 512-bit RSA Keys by Digicert Malaysia
  6. ↑ Revoking Trust in DigiCert Sdn. Bhd Intermediate Certificate Authority, Mozilla. "DigiCert Sdn. Bhd is a Malaysian subordinate CA under Entrust and Verizon (GTE CyberTrust). It bears no affiliation whatsoever with the US-based corporation DigiCert, Inc., which is a member of Mozilla’s root program."
  7. ↑ Microsoft Security Advisory (2641690) "DigiCert Sdn. Bhd is not affiliated with the corporation DigiCert, Inc., which is a member of the Microsoft Root Certificate Program."
  8. ↑ Chandler, Jeff. "Entrepreneur of the Year 2012". DigiCert.com. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Ken Bretschneider’s Nomination for Entrepreneur of the Year". PeopleWater.com. July 14, 2012. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
  10. ↑ "People Water Names Ken Bretschneider CEO". PRNewswire.com. April 24, 2012. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Utah's DigiCert reorganizes its management". Salt Lake Tribune. April 17, 2012. Retrieved July 9, 2012.
  12. ↑ "TA Associates Announces Majority Investment in DigiCert". December 12, 2012.