I always wonder why trust these things?

Story: Phony SSL Certificates issued for Google, Yahoo, Skype, OthersTotal Replies: 2
Author Content
tuxchick

Mar 25, 2011
1:21 PM EDT
We have the little padlock icon and the green URL box-- Firefox throws a fit at self-signed certs and forces you to click through a bunch of "Are you really really sure??" boxes. Well how on God's green earth are we supposed to know if it's safe to approve a particular certificate or not? How are we supposed to know if the little padlock is right or not? sure, we can click on it and look at the certification authority. So? How very Windows-ian, scary messages and important decisions with no useful information.
kingttx

Mar 25, 2011
2:58 PM EDT
You come home, your front door is closed and apparently locked. How can you know for sure if you can walk in and not be mugged? A little hyperbole, but unless you know differently, you walk in with eyes open subconsciously looking for clues. That's about the best users can do in these cases. Your point about no useful information does hamstring that a bit, though, unfortunately a very real problem.
jezuch

Mar 26, 2011
6:06 AM EDT
Yup, the CA "industry" has been broken from the very beginning. Wrong chain of "trust", wrong incentives, etc.

But what can we do about it, now that one Shuttleworth made his fortune on it? ;)

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