GlobalSign
More info
- Released
- 1996
- Owner
- GMO Internet Group
- Type
- Certificate authority
A Belgian certificate authority from the web's early days, now Japanese-owned and one of the roots browsers trust without asking you.
The company started in Leuven in 1996, when SSL certificates were a novelty that mostly concerned online shops. Its root landed in browser trust stores early, and that position is the real asset: a new certificate authority can spend years trying to get in. Japan's GMO Internet later bought the business.
In autumn 2011, weeks after DigiNotar collapsed, the hacker behind the Comodo breach claimed GlobalSign was next. Issuance was halted for over a week; the only thing found compromised was the company's web server. In 2016 a clean-up of cross-certificates went wrong and made valid certificates look revoked via OCSP — a reminder that housekeeping in PKI happens in front of a very large audience.