Web browsers drop TrustCor Systems, a mysterious company with ties to US military contractor

Mozilla’s Firefox and Microsoft’s Edge said they would stop trusting new certificates from TrustCor Systems that vouched for the legitimacy of sites reached by their users, capping weeks of online arguments among their technology experts, outside researchers and TrustCor, which said it had no ongoing ties of concern. Other tech companies are expected to follow suit. “Certificate Authorities have highly trusted roles in the internet ecosystem and it is unacceptable for a CA to be closely tied, through ownership and operation, to a company engaged in the distribution of malware,” Mozilla’s Kathleen Wilson said. “Trustcor’s responses via their Vice President of CA operations further substantiates the factual basis for Mozilla’s concerns.” TrustCor has a small staff in Canada, where it is officially based at a UPS Store mail drop although the company has infrastructure in Arizona as well. Several technologists said that they found TrustCor evasive on basic matters such as legal domicile and ownership, which they said was inappropriate for a company wielding the power of a root certificate authority, which not only asserts that a secure, https website is not an impostor but can deputize other certificate issuers to do the same.