Let’s Encrypt Issued A Billion Free SSL Certificates in the Last 4 Years

Let’s Encrypt, a free, automated, and open certificate signing authority (CA) from the nonprofit Internet Security Research Group (ISRG), has said it’s issued a billion certificates since its launch in 2015.

The CA issued its first certificate in September 2015, before eventually reaching 100 million in June 2017. Since late last year, Let’s Encrypt has issued at least 1.2 million certificates each day.

The development comes as over 80 percent of the web page loads have begun using HTTPS worldwide, and 91 percent in the US alone.

HTTPS, the default means of secure communication on the internet, comes with three benefits: authentication, integrity, and encryption. It allows HTTP requests to be transmitted over a secure encrypted channel, thus protecting users from an array of malicious activities, including site forgery and content manipulation.

“Since 2017, browsers have started requiring HTTPS for more features, and they’ve greatly improved the ways in which they communicate to their users about the risks of not using HTTPS,” the company said. “When websites put their users at risk by not using HTTPS, major browsers now show stronger warnings. Many sites have responded by…