Open versus closed PKI systems

[Ian BROWN]

>If businesses find it makes
>no difference whether they offer certificates or not, presumably they will
>cease to bother.

Unfortunately, browsers make it rather awkward for the average consumer to 
connect securely to a site that doesn't have one from an organisation in their 
certificate cache. For that reason alone, I suspect most firms will continue 
paying a few hundred dollars a year to stop their users having to click 
through 5 or 6 incomprehensible "do you want to accept this certificate" 
dialog boxes :(