Cloudflare plans to issue quantum-safe TLS certificates

What happened

The move will be part of a major overhaul of the ecosystem for website authentication. Cloudflare said Tuesday it plans to issue quantum-proof TLS certificates, making it one of the first authorities to issue such certificates that use a form of cryptography that is widely believed to withstand attacks from quantum computers. Cloudflare is an information and communications technology company based in San Francisco.

The Internet infrastructure provider said it will use an open source platform that issues both classic TLS certificates and a post-quantum equivalent known as Merkle Tree Certificates . The hybrid certificates will be free to both paying and non-paying users. To help build the massive system and establish ubiquity across the sprawling TLS ecosystem, Cloudflare will be acquiring an already trusted certificate root from CA GlobalSign.