September 8, 2004

• We are making some changes to enhance web, email and wireless hotspot security for our online communities. To this end, we're using certificates for many of our sites that are issued by CAcert. CAcert is a certificate authority whose model of certificate distribution allows for the scaling that must occur at reasonable cost for widespread adoption by the user community in support of next generation client authentication. This will be essential for deployment of effective anti-spam solutions and personal internet security.

• In addition, CAcert's community-based Root Certificate Authority offers better authentication and verification practices than many commercial certificate authorities.

• Once you download and install Cacert's root certificate into your browser, you can access the growing number of sites that secure their web and email services with certificates issued by CAcert without error messages or annoying workarounds.

• Check out their website for more info and to obtain your own client certificate.
  

• Download CAcert.org Root Certificates for your browser...
  Most browsers - cacert.crt
  Internet Explorer on Mac OS X - cacert.der
  Internet Explorer on Mac OS 8.1 - 9.x (requires upgrade to IE 5.1.7 from www.microsoft.com/ie/mac ) - cacert.der

• For security reasons, when you click on the certificate download link, you may need to save rather than open the certificate file. After downloading to a folder or directory, you can then open the file, in most cases by double-clicking on it, and following the directions. In the case of Mac OS X, when asked in which keychain to place the certificate, make sure it is in the X509Anchors store. However, some browsers will automatically open the downloaded certificate and lead you through the certificate installation using a wizard process.