StartCom
StartCom was a certificate authority founded in Eilat, Israel, and later based in Beijing, China, that had three main activities: StartCom Enterprise Linux (Linux distribution), StartSSL (certificate authority) and MediaHost (web hosting). StartCom set up branch offices in China, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Spain. Due to multiple faults on the company's end, all StartCom certificates were removed from Mozilla Firefox in October 2016 and Google Chrome in March 2017, including certificates previously issued, with similar removals from other browsers expected to follow.
| Company type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Internet security, Public key infrastructure |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder | Eddy Nigg |
| Defunct | January 1, 2018 |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Iñigo Barreira (CEO), Tan Xiaosheng (Chairman), Yang Qing |
| Owner | Qihoo 360 Group |
| Parent | StartCom CA Ltd. (UK), StartCom CA Ltd. (HK) |
StartCom was acquired in secrecy by WoSign Limited (Shenzhen, Guangdong, China), through multiple companies, which was revealed by the Mozilla investigation related to the root certificate removal of WoSign and StartCom in 2016. Due to the sanctions of both Mozilla and Apple, the company announced it would be restructured during 2016 by WoSign parent Qihoo 360 Group, detaching StartCom from the scandal-affected WoSign and making it a subsidiary of Qihoo.
Despite attempts to distance itself from the controversy, on November 16, 2017, StartCom announced termination of business, and on January 1, 2018, stopped serving new certificates, effectively closing the company. The StartSSL, StartCom, and StartCom CA websites now redirect to WoSign's shop page.