We have relationships with Comodo, DigiCert, and GlobalSign. A large part of our Universal SSL issuance is currently through Comodo, which is probably what you

We have relationships with Comodo, DigiCert, and GlobalSign. A large part of our Universal SSL issuance is currently through Comodo, which is probably what you noticed. (We've considered acquiring our own CA or subCA in the past but the audit requirements are quite onerous, at least after the first year, and sometimes it's nice to have someone handle certain aspects for you.) The most important thing to pay attention to here, with respect to Blue Coat, is the subscriber agreement they have signed with the CA AND the CPS that they write for their auditors. It'll dictate what they are and are not allowed to do with this subCA. If these are publicly trusted certificates, they will still need to pass—at minimum—domain control validation, e.g., can BC/their customers add an arbitrary DNS record or HTTP-accessible file for the zone being issued? If not, CA/B prohibits their issuance, so Symantec would get in huge trouble for allowing this. When you run your own subCA you are supposed to perform these checks yourself; it's up to their auditors (more in a sec) and Symantec to make sure they are performing these each and every time. Additionally, Blue Coat will need to pass a WebTrust audit as mandated by the CA/B Forum. The thoroughness of this audit depends on how much Blue Coat is taking over from Symantec. If they're, e.g., handling key material, the audit will be much the same the CAs themselves must do. If doing considerably less, the scope of the audit is considerably more constrained. I think these audits are released to the public as I remember Let's Encrypt doing so, but that may just be because i) they aren't a full blown directly browser trusted CA or ii) LE just decided to do so as it fits their ethos. You can find the relevant regulations that are imposed on public CAs here (look specifically for references to Subscriber Agreements): https://github.com/cabforum/documents/tree/master/docs https://github.com/cabforum/documents/tree/master/docs. I'd start with the "BRs" (Baseline Requirements) doc; the other, EV Guidelines are irrelevant here, and Bylaws apply to CA/B itself. Source: I manage CloudFlare's relationship with CAs and product manage our SSL/TLS related offerings. EDIT: Added reference to CPS, the Certification Practice Statement. This document is written and provided to the auditors, and includes controls to test, etc. Here's Symantec's for example (as linked within X509v3 in crt.sh): https://www.symauth.com/cps https://www.symauth.com/cps.