Chris Bailey of AffirmTrust talked to the WHIR about the new SSL certificate authority
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — SSL certificates have been a hot topic around the hosting industry, since a series of attacks targeting a series of certificate authorities and resellers have caused some to question the security of the SSL system.
But, in a market where trust is the most significant commodity, a small number of major players dominate, and new entrants are few and far between. One of those major players is GeoTrust, which was acquired by VeriSign in 2006. Last year, the GeoTrust brand launched a campaign to lower SSL certificate costs and go head to head with competitor Go Daddy.
More than five years after that acquisition, the founders of GeoTrust have returned to the SSL market, launching a new certificate authority called AffirmTrust (www.affirmtrust.com), which has taken the cheap SSL certificate model one step further by offering three-year SSL certificates for free.
In an email interview with the WHIR, president and chief executive officer of AffirmTrust Chris Bailey discussed the motivation to return to the certificate market, and what AffirmTrust will bring to the business.
WHIR: GeoTrust was pretty disruptive to the SSL certificate market. Is that part of the plan for AffirmTrust?
Chris Bailey: Yes, we believe that that there is still a lot of room to innovate and disrupt in every segment of the SSL market. The plan is to make it much easier to order and manage SSL certificates in a way that dramatically expands the market.
WHIR: Are there new concepts or ideas that AffirmTrust will bring to the SSL market?
CB: Well at GeoTrust we were known for great customer service, fast issuance of certificates, and drastically reduced prices from our competitors. At AffirmTrust we are trying to continue with these virtues while also dramatically reducing the amount of time it takes to order and manage certificates. The concepts that we are envisioning revolve around saving the time that our customers and partners spend trying to manage certificates.
WHIR: I know Neal Creighton was involved in RatePoint after GeoTrust was sold. Are there any other projects that GeoTrust’s founders have been working on in the meantime?
CB: Neal and I have been working together for about 12 years now. We also worked on Chosen Security which sold to PGP/Symantec, we both founded RatePoint, and now we are working on AffirmTrust. We always have ideas floating around, so I am sure we will be starting other companies in the future.
WHIR: What is AffirmTrust launching in July? Are the free certificates a temporary offering, or is that something you intend to continue?
CB: We will be launching our free certificate service in July. These certificates will be 3 year certificates and a customer will be able to order as many as they want. We have not decided how long the free program will last, but we would like to get as many free certificates into the market as possible.
WHIR: Is there a profit model attached to the free certificates or is it more of a marketing initiative?
CB: The free certificate offering will introduce our other paid products that we will be offering in the future like our extended validation certificates. We believe that customers will be more likely to buy them from us than our competitors.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson writes full-time for the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto, and has been writing for the WHIR since September 2010. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
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