[ Thanks to Eddy
Nigg for this link. ]
This is good news for Webmasters who will now be
able to use StartCom certificates for all site visitors, and not
have to hack up another CA for IE users– ed.Microsoft Adds Support for StartCom Certificates
Eilat, Israel, September 24, 2009 – StartCom is proud to
announce that digital certificates issued by the StartCom
Certification Authority are now fully trusted and legitimate in
Microsoft applications such as Internet Explorer and
Office/Outlook. Microsoft recently enabled this support by adding
StartCom to its Root Certificate Program in an updated list of
trusted root certificates distributed worldwide to users of
Microsoft applications. Microsoft has also enabled the new Extended
Validation certificates issued by StartCom, which provide a unique
indicator in modern browsers like Internet Explorer 7 and 8.– The StartCom Certification Authority has gained significant
mindshare with technically-oriented members of the Internet
community through its high security standards, grassroots ambiance,
and competitive offerings. StartCom has been a true pioneer by
providing automated, legitimate website certificates to its
audience without charge, for the first time in the history of
standard X.509 digital certificates. By doing so, it has
introducued a wide, new audience to digital certificates and web
site security. Started initially as an educational project and
partly as a commercial effort, the certification authority run by
StartCom is today actively shaping a more secure Internet
experience for thousands of users and their relying parties through
its low-cost, high-availability services. With the goal to educate
the masses about the need for proper identification, certification
and authentication, StartCom promotes higher reliability on the
Internet and allows the mitigation of losses and other risks.– In 2008, StartCom proved its adherence to the highest industry
management and security standards through certification in WebTrust
for CAs and WebTrust Extended Validation as a result of audit
procedures performed by Ernst & Young. This in turn allowed
Microsoft and other software vendors to enable the highest trust
settings for StartCom in their respective software. Even before
gaining WebTrust certification, StartCom-issued certificates were
already recognized by a wide variety of software vendors, including
Mozilla (Firefox) and Apple (Mac OS X). With the recently added
support by Microsoft, digital certificates issued by StartCom are
today recognized by the vast majority of modern browsers and
Internet applications. StartCom is now able to provide a viable,
low-cost alternative to existing commercial certification
authorities and providers.– To reach these goals, StartCom has developed and applied a
unique business model previously not found in the digital
certification industry. Whereas the competition applies fees on a
per-certificate basis, StartCom charges based on the effort needed
to issue a particular type or class of certificates (free for
simple Class 1 certificates and extremely reasonable fees for
higher-trust Class 2 and Extended Validation certificates). This
makes StartCom highly competitive, since its subscribers receive a
better product for a lower fee or no fee at all. The services and
products of StartCom are provided 24 hours a day through a secure,
web-based, online control panel. This system gives StartCom almost
instant interaction with its customers and enables very efficient
handling and delivery of its services, further enhancing the user
experience.– StartCom is committed to building a more reliable, secure
Internet. As part of that commitment, StartCom is actively involved
with key security-related projects (such as the CA/Browser Forum,
the Mozilla project, and OpenID), cooperates with a wide variety of
software vendors and standardization working groups, helps to
educate end users and service operators, and constantly works to
improve its own offerings to enable the delivery of accessible,
affordable digitial certificates.– Users of Microsoft Windows systems may visit the Update Site
to install the Root Update Package. It is also possible to invoke
an automatic root update of the StartCom root by visiting a
StartCom SSL protected site such as https://www.startcom.org/ that
chains up to the StartCom root certificate.