OT: is it possible for an individual (not a business) to get a valid SSL certificate

Jim Mercer jim at reptiles.org
Thu Jul 26 15:05:29 UTC 2001


On Thu, Jul 26, 2001 at 10:50:41AM -0400, Noah wrote:
> On Thu, 26 Jul 2001, Jim Mercer wrote:
> > i want to get a useful SSL certificate for my personal webserver.
> > (and have customers who would like to do so as well).
> >
> > i've talked to cibc.com/verisign, the canadian verisign affiliate, and they
> > tell me they can only do certificates for registered businesses.
> 
> You may want to give equifax a shot (http://www.equifaxsecure.com/). They
> have a "Non-Government Organization" category, which requires letterhead
> from the CEO of the company confirming proof of right. They also have the
> mondo-spiffy wildcard caertificates (cert works for *.domain.dom).

while it would be trivial for me to go out and register "Jim Mercer & Company"
as a proprietorship ($50 CDN registration fee for 5 years i think), i fail
to see why this is necessary.

a person is a business, in that it is a taxable entity, can incur debt, etc,
etc, etc.

should a copy of my passport not suffice?

as a follow-up, i eventually ended up talking to the Toronto office of Thawte,
and they will accept:

- passport/drivers license
- bank statement, tax roll notice or other paper showing address and
   "existence"
- paper letter from the admin contact of the domain deeming the individual
     as responsible for the SSL certificate (if the individual's name does
     not appear as the "owner" of the domain).

after some discussion, it was agreed that a passport would double both as
verification of ID, as well as certification of recognition by an outside
entity (ie. the government).

as such, i can likely get an SSL certificate with just my passport, drivers
license (as a secondary piece of documentation) and a letter deeming me as
responsible for the domainname (as my name does not actually exist as the
registrant, but i am the admin contact).

> There's also www.freessl.com, but their cert only works with IE5.01 or
> better.

is netscape going to add them as a default as well?

-- 
[ Jim Mercer        jim at reptiles.org         +1 416 410-5633 ]
[ Now with more and longer words for your reading enjoyment. ]



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