Thawte
Thawte is a certificate authority that issues digital certificates to verify identity and enable encryption on the internet. It was founded in 1995 by Mark Shuttleworth as Thawte Consulting (Pty) Ltd in South Africa, with early operations based in Cape Town. The company emerged as one of the first publicly trusted CAs, expanding its SSL/TLS certificate offerings to customers worldwide.
In 1999, Thawte was acquired by VeriSign for about $575 million, integrating its PKI services into VeriSign’s
In 2017, Symantec’s Website Security business, including Thawte, was acquired by DigiCert, placing Thawte within the
Overall, Thawte’s history reflects the consolidation of major PKI players over the past two decades, while the