Let's Encrypt

A Free, Automated and Open Certificate Authority

Arief Karfianto

 Report on Emerging E-Business Technologies

Outline

• Introduction

• Let's Encrypt Design

• Let's Encrypt Implementation

• Conclusion

Introduction

• Enterprises need high-level security : e-Business applications, online trading, banking and web service-based business process automation.
• Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is one of security technology. 
• PKI is a system involving digital certificates, certification authorities (CAs), and registration authorities (RAs) that verify and authenticate the validity of certificate from each party involved in an electronic transaction (Papazoglou & Ribbers 2006, p. 376).

Introduction (cont.)

Introduction (cont.)

The biggest obstacle to Hypertext Transport Protocol Secure (HTTPS) deployment :

• complexity
• bureaucracy
• cost 
   

Introduction (cont.)

In 2015, Electronic Frontier Foundation released Let’s Encrypt.  

• automates the certificate management on servers
• provides simple tools to manage HTTPS
• do not need email validation and complex configuration 
• automatically manages the renewal process
• free of charge
   

Let's Encrypt Design

Domain Validation

Domain Validation (cont.)

Certificate Issuance

Implementation

// update the ubuntu repository
$ sudo apt-get update

// install git scm
$ sudo apt-get install git 

// clone the agent from github
$ sudo git clone https://github.com/certbot/certbot /opt/letsencrypt

// create certificate for example.com and www.example.com
$ cd /opt/letsencrypt
$ ./letsencrypt-auto --apache -d example.com -d www.example.com

// check the validity and renew the certificate
$ ./letsencrypt-auto renew

// put auto renewal script to cron
$ sudo crontab –e

$ 30 2 * * 1 /opt/letsencrypt/letsencrypt-auto renew

Implementation

• Let’s Encrypt has issued its millionth certificate by March 2016 (Aas 2016).
• Securing approximately 2.4 million domains
• Growing at the rate of more than 100,000 certificates per week
• Let’s Encrypt also received a significant endorsement from major companies such as Mozilla, Akamai, Cisco, and Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Its implementation on hosting companies helps many sites including e-Business websites implement HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt
   

Implementation

“the growth of HTTPS has increased four-fold since Let's Encrypt was launched.”

                                                                                                          -- Mozilla

Source: https://blogs.akamai.com/2016/04/how-has-lets-encrypt-impacted-web-security.html

Implementation

Showcase

Conclusion

• Web access security is an important aspect of e-business solutions.
• One of the internet protocols widely used to secure communication between clients and web-based application servers is HTTPS.
• The majority of websites do not implement HTTPS due to the technical complexity and high cost of obtaining a digital certificate.
• To improve the number of HTTPS implementation, Internet Security Research Group developed Let’s Encrypt, a free, automated and open Certificate Authority (CA).
• There are two steps for managing digital certificates from Let’s Encrypt. The agent proves that it has the control of a domain, and then it requests, renews, and revokes certificates for that domain. 
• Since its first launch in 2015, more than 2 million domains, from personal to business, have been using digital certificates from Let’s Encrypt.
• This emerging technology provides advantages for better e-business security over the internet.

Thank You

References

Aas, J 2016, Our Millionth Certificate, Let's Encrypt - Free SSL/TLS Certificates, weblog post, 8 March 2016, viewed 1 April 2016, <https://letsencrypt.org/2016/03/08/ourmillionth-cert.html>.

Eckersley, P 2014, Launching in 2015: A Certificate Authority to Encrypt the Entire Web,
Electronic Frontier Foundation, weblog post, 18 November 2014, viewed 1 April 2016, <https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/certificate-authority-encrypt-entireweb>.
 

Getting Started - Let's Encrypt - Free SSL/TLS Certificates 2016 Internet Security Research Group, viewed 1 April 2016, <https://letsencrypt.org/getting-started/>.
 

How It Works - Let's Encrypt - Free SSL/TLS Certificates 2016, Internet Security Research Group, viewed 1 April 2016, <https://letsencrypt.org/how-it-works/ >.

Papazoglou, M & Ribbers, P 2006, E-business: organizational and technical foundations, Chichester, England, John Wiley.