3 ms·
>) The point of the first part of their post is not "we're too big", it's "a move like this would disrupt the lives of an awful lot of people." not doing somet
by fosco 9y ago
>) The point of the first part of their post is not "we're too big", it's "a move like this would disrupt the lives of an awful lot of people."
not doing something is allowing the previous lack of security standards to put all of those people in danger. there is a tradeoff with every decision.
the entire PKI ecoysystem relies on self management and I think google is making a tough decision, but one that ultimately has already led to better decisions regarding security.
- mdip 9y ago> not doing something is allowing the previous lack of security standards to put all of those people in danger. So glad others are making this point. Not to mention that the CA system is one who's sole feature and only purpose is trust. There is zero security if you can't trust the root. We'd love to live in a world where providing security didn't require a trusted third-party, but that's not the world the internet operates on, today. Transparency is provided by establishing strict guidelines and expectations for CAs. Maintaining this trust is enforcing those guidelines equally among the CAs regardless of size/scope and punishing (preferably severely) any violations. Otherwise the old saying of "rules that are not enforced are just suggestions" comes into play. Because it's a trust-based model, the consequences for violations of that trust have to be strong enough to make a compromised actor willing to refuse government intelligence divisions, corporate criminal actors or even organized crime that has the resources and could stoop to any level of blackmail/bribery to squeeze out a certificate that would allow one to spoof a connection to a high-value target like Amazon, Google, Paypal or Microsoft.