Let’s Encrypt co-founder Peter Eckersley dies aged 43

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Australian computer scientist Peter Eckersley died last week at the age of 43. Eckersley was one of the co-founders of Let’s Encrypt, a certificate authority that issues free TLS certificates. He also worked for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Eckersley’s death was unexpected, says Eva Galperin, EFF’s director of cybersecurity on Twitter. Reportedly, Eckersley was shortly before his death diagnosed with cancer and his condition rapidly deteriorated.

The Australian computer scientist played a major role in Let’s Encrypt. This certificate authority issues free TLS certificates. Let’s Encrypt has so far already more than 2.5 billion certificates issued. As a result, the number of https websites has grown enormously.

Until 2018, Eckersley worked for EFF, an American foundation that fights for digital rights for citizens. He worked on projects such as the browser extensions Privacy Badger and Https Everywhere. In recent years, Eckersley has focused on the impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning on society. Before that, he founded the AI ​​Objectives Institute.

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