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Comment by joosters | Hacker News Reader

StartSSL is far from simple to use.

It's hardly rocket surgery though.

Anyone incapable of following the steps required there is probably not who you'd want implementing your web server security…

Last time I tried, their site had JavaScript bugs and their email validation procedure didn't pass greylisting. I didn't want to place my web server security in the hands of a company with such low quality standards.

i had that problem when i used to run my own mail server (3 years ago). When did you last try?

It was less than a year ago, also running our own mail server.

That's the entire point. If the whole web is going to be secure, then someone who "is not who you'd want implementing your web server security" needs to be able to make it work, and work right.

I believe let's encrypt is supposed to be a single command to run. Anyone that can set up a webserver can manage it.

If you're going the minimally technical route then you're using shared or managed hosting and it's not your job to set up the SSL.

Well, the counter argument is that even if the whole population is going to not have brain tumours - I _still_ don't want "someone who's not a rocket surgeon" doing brain surgery.

Crypto is non-trivial. There'll never be a proper "Click this button to automatically secure your random php app running in cPanel/Plesk".

The best we'll see I suspect is a "click here and make your website pass the minimal checks modern browsers use to determine if you're secure", then we'll have a daily stream of site owners claiming "the PII/password/creditcard breach wasn't my fault - I used 2048 bit encryption!"

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