[Discuss] free certs everywhere

[Richard Pieri]

On 12/23/2014 9:20 PM, Tom Metro wrote:
> The point stands that in the beginning, there weren't choices for cert
> levels. And as you point out, there were significant labor costs
> involved for what they did provide. So it would be illogical for someone
> to mandate that they give away that service.

That's because what you call "basic" and "extended verification" are the 
same thing as far as X.509 PKI as designed is concerned. X.509 is an 
identity management specification. A CA issues you a certificate only 
after it has verified that you are who you say you are. In a government 
or commercial agency this would be tied to the hiring process. In an 
education setting it would be tied to the enrollment process. Issuing 
X.509 certificates without performing these so-called extended 
verifications is a failure to correctly implement X.509 PKI.

-- 
Rich P.