Once upon a time website encryption was a privilege, for a hobby site, it probably didn’t make sense to spend hundreds of dollars on a certificate from one of the Certificate Authorities (CA). Even as early as a few years ago getting a free cert was difficult and annoying at best.
No longer. Now we have Lets Encrypt , a free certificate authority who provides a secure programatic method for setting up you Domain Validation (DV) Certificates, for free*. When I recently set up codemichael.net I used Lets Encrypt to set up the certificate, and it was honestly as simple as running a single command. It’s amazing and wonderful.
You may have heard me say “if you’re not paying, then you’re the product being sold”. Thankfully that is not the case here, the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) is supported by major sponsors, but they are asking for community support as well. I’ve donated a couple of dollars , and will do so again (I’m working on donating more to causes I support, even if it’s just $5 here and there). I would encourage others to do the same, this project supports secure communications for ALL of humanity, which is something we need a lot more of.