Comment by thuejk

> Why this wasn't done a long time ago is beyond me.

While probably not officially scriptable, free certificates have been available since a long time ago: https://www.startssl.com/?app=1

Also, no free wildcard certs. Which I really want.

> What happens if a CA is compromised?

Looking at past compromises, if they have been very irresponsible they are delisted from the browsers' list of trusted roots (see diginotar). If they have not been extremely irresponsible, then they seem to be able to continue to function (see Comodo).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DigiNotar#Refusal_to_publish_r... https://blogs.comodo.com/uncategorized/the-recent-ra-comprom...