To understand how this happened, you need to understand the way much of the Web's private traffic stays private.Whenever you're sending sensitive information online—say, your credit card number to Amazon or a message over Gmail—the content is encrypted before being sent and then decrypted by the Web site you sent it to.

These certificate authorities are supposed to conduct due diligence in ensuring that only the real Web site gets their stamps of approval. At the beginning of Web history, there were only a handful of companies, like Verisign, Equifax, and Thawte, that made near-monopoly profits from being the only providers trusted by Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.



Microsoft's software trusts more than 100 private and government institutions.


To overcome this deficiency, the Web's security relies on the idea of "certificate authorities": organizations that independently verify the identity of the Web site you're communicating with and provide a digital confirmation that it's authentic.x Continuing to browse implies that you agree to the use of cookies to measure usage statistics, to provide you with services and offers tailored to your interests, and to enable interactive social platform features including share buttons and content uploading.Find out more Match singles nights and events give members the opportunity to get together at venues near them and share a drink, enjoy an activity and get to know each other.But that still leaves the hundreds of other certificate authorities that could turn rogue and start spying on the Web's secure systems.Ironically, RIM's enterprise Black Berry encryption is one of the few secure Internet communication channels that doesn't depend on certificate authorities, which could be one of the reasons the UAE is so obsessed with cracking it.In July 2009, Etisalat abruptly announced a software update on all its Black Berry customers.