SSLMate was created by Andrew Ayer, a system administrator, programmer, and security researcher.

Andrew created SSLMate in 2014 when he was converting his sites to HTTPS and got sick and tired of how much busy work was required. He realized that if he automated the busy work, he'd be able to focus on his other, more important work.

When SSLMate launched, it was the world's first command-line program for obtaining publicly-trusted SSL certificates, and transformed what used to be a frustrating multi-hour affair into something that takes minutes.

Values

We believe good security should be easy, even if you're not a security expert. That means we automate everything for you that can be automated so you don't have to concern yourself with security minutiae. We use reasonable defaults that work for 99% of people, so you don't have to keep up with what the best cryptographic algorithms are. We anticipate problems before they occur, so we can solve them without you ever noticing, or present them to you in understandable language with clear actions you can take to resolve the issue. If you ever need help, Andrew will answer your emails personally.

We believe our incentives should be aligned with your success. That's why we're 100% bootstrapped. Although we've been approached by investors, we want to remain customer-funded so we're motivated by what's good for you, not by what's good for venture capitalists. And of course we don't display ads or sell your data - our business model is that you pay us and we provide you service.

We believe in doing what's good for the Internet. That means participating in standards and policy groups, doing security research on critical Internet infrastructure, and contributing patches to open source projects to make HTTPS more reliable. We all use the Internet, and what is good for the Internet is good for you.

Some of Andrew's work includes:

• Finding a Duplicate Signature Key Selection Vulnerability in the ACME certificate issuance protocol that allowed attackers to get unauthorized certificates. This critical vulnerability had been missed during a formal security audit, and Andrew's discovery prevented the vulnerability from entering production at Let's Encrypt.
• Demonstrating how OCSP could be used to forge certificates using hash collision attacks. This attack was previously unknown and easier to exploit than existing techniques. This research led to policy changes to forbid unsafe use of SHA-1.
• Designing a comprehensive CAA Test Suite to help ensure certificate authorities had implemented CAA checking correctly.
• Implementing Certificate Transparency gossip to help detect misbehavior by Certificate Transparency logs.

Company

SSLMate is a product of Opsmate, Inc., a California corporation founded in 2014.

Branding

Here is our logo in a variety of formats and sizes:

• SSLMate_Icon.eps
• SSLMate_Icon.pdf
• SSLMate_Icon_Large.png
• SSLMate_Icon_Small.png
• SSLMate_Logo.eps
• SSLMate_Logo.pdf
• SSLMate_Logo_Large.png
• SSLMate_Logo_Small.png