How Free Let’s Encrypt Certificates Reshaped the Entire SSL Industry

Before 2016, obtaining an SSL certificate meant paying a certificate authority anywhere from tens to hundreds of dollars a year, navigating a manual application and validation process, and often waiting hours or days for issuance. Let's Encrypt, a nonprofit certificate…

Self-Signed Certificates: When They’re Fine, When They’re a Red Flag

A self-signed certificate provides identical encryption strength to a certificate issued by a trusted certificate authority — the actual cryptographic protection of the data in transit is no weaker at all. What it lacks entirely is the third-party identity verification…