Making Tech Headlines · Page 9
Eight Certificates, a Very Large Trust Problem
· New York time
The discovery of eight compromised intermediate TLS certificates has put internet security on alert. These certificates can enable the creation of web credentials for any internet server, making their compromise much more consequential than the small count suggests. The issue concerns the machinery that helps establish trust online. A browser's reassuring interface depends on a chain of credentials that most people never inspect, much as a restaurant customer rarely audits the foundation before ordering lunch. The practical lesson is scale: eight is a modest number of objects but not a modest scope of authority. Digital trust can rest on components whose importance bears no relationship to how much room they occupy on a list. The padlock has substantial backstage staffing.
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