What Is the CA/Browser Forum and Why Should I Care?

Regular readers of this blog will occasionally see references to the CA/Browser Forum. Today we will talk about what the CA/Browser Forum is and why it matters to you.

The CA/Browser Forum (CA/B Forum) is an independent body that establishes standards for the practices that digital certificate authorities will follow and how popular browsers will treat their certificates.  The CA/B Forum is a voluntary organization formed by the main players in the digital certificate industry in order to ensure that certificates can continue to fulfill their essential role enabling online trust on the open internet.

The CA/B Forum in the past has been influential in establishing minimum standards for SSL and code signing certificates and is the body that created the Extended Validation (EV) standards for both these certificate types.  The CA/B Forum is also the body that has been shortening the accepted duration for SSL certificates, exemplified by the upcoming removal of three-year SSL certificates from the market.

Forum members include public CAs such as DigiCert and Comodo and popular browser manufacturers like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Mozilla.