As quantum computing edges closer to practical reality, the web's foundational trust infrastructure faces an existential reckoning. In late September 2026, Cloudflare announced it would become a public certificate authority beginning in early 2027, offering a new class of post-quantum certificates designed to outlast the cryptographic assumptions that currently hold the internet together. The move is both a hedge against concentration risk among today's handful of dominant issuers and a quiet acknowledgment that the window for proactive preparation is narrowing.
Cloudflare launches post-quantum certificate authority in early 2027
upgrading the web's security before quantum computers can break it
Mark
Why does Cloudflare need to become a certificate authority? Aren't there already plenty of them?
Mimi
There are, but they're concentrated. A handful of dominant CAs issue most of the certificates on the web. If one gets compromised or fails, the damage is massive and immediate.
Luke
That's true, but it's also worth noting that the current system has redundancy built in—browsers trust multiple CAs. The real risk is more subtle than a single point of failure.
Mark
What makes Merkle Tree Certificates different from regular post-quantum certificates?
Mimi
Post-quantum signatures are heavy—they add a lot of data to every connection. MTCs use lightweight proofs instead, so you don't send the full signature every time.
Luke
That's the theory. But MTCs are still an IETF draft, not a finished standard. We don't yet know how they'll perform at the scale Cloudflare is proposing.
Mark
When will this actually be live?
Mimi
Production MTC issuance starts in Q1 2027, but only after Cloudflare gets approved by Chrome, Apple, Microsoft, and Mozilla. Those applications are still pending.
Luke
And before that, Cloudflare needs to close the GlobalSign deal for root key material. That's expected within two months, but it's subject to closing conditions.
Mark
What does this mean for website operators?
Mimi
They'll be able to manage both conventional and post-quantum certificates in one system. Renewals happen automatically in the background, no forced cutover.
Luke
That's the promise. But we're talking about coordinating changes across millions of sites. The real test is whether the automation actually works at that scale without breaking things.
O Pulso
- Quantum computers are expected to break today's web encryption within years, and most of the internet's certificate infrastructure has not yet begun to adapt.
- A small number of certificate authorities currently underpin trust for millions of websites, meaning a single failure or compromise could cascade across the web at catastrophic scale.
- Cloudflare is seeking approval from Chrome, Apple, Microsoft, and Mozilla root programs — the four gatekeepers whose acceptance determines whether any certificate authority is trusted by browsers and devices worldwide.
- Its Merkle Tree Certificate design sidesteps the performance cost of heavy post-quantum signatures by letting browsers verify membership in a trusted registry through lightweight cryptographic proofs.
- Automated background renewal across millions of sites, a public health dashboard, and reproducible code builds are positioned as the operational backbone of a transparent, low-friction transition.
- Production issuance of the first post-quantum Merkle Tree Certificates is scheduled for Q1 2027, contingent on pending root program approvals and the closing of a key deal with GlobalSign.
As quantum computing edges closer to practical reality, the web's foundational trust infrastructure faces an existential reckoning. In late September 2026, Cloudflare announced it would become a public certificate authority beginning in early 2027, offering a new class of post-quantum certificates designed to outlast the cryptographic assumptions that currently hold the internet together. The move is both a hedge against concentration risk among today's handful of dominant issuers and a quiet acknowledgment that the window for proactive preparation is narrowing.
Cloudflare announced in late September 2026 that it will begin issuing digital certificates in early 2027, with a particular focus on a new post-quantum format designed to remain secure against future quantum computers. The decision responds to two distinct weaknesses in how the internet currently establishes trust: certificate issuance is concentrated among very few authorities, and the encryption standards protecting most web traffic today are expected to be breakable by quantum machines within years.
To earn trust on older devices that no longer receive software updates, Cloudflare is acquiring publicly trusted root key material from GlobalSign, a deal expected to close within two months. The company has also applied to the root programs run by Chrome, Apple, Microsoft, and Mozilla — the four gatekeepers whose acceptance is required before any certificate authority can be trusted by mainstream browsers. Conventional certificate issuance will not begin until those approvals are granted.
The post-quantum certificates Cloudflare is developing, called Merkle Tree Certificates, take a different approach from standard post-quantum signatures, which are computationally expensive to transmit. Instead, they allow browsers to verify a certificate's legitimacy through lightweight cryptographic proofs against a trusted registry. Cloudflare co-authored the technical specification through the Internet Engineering Task Force and has already tested the approach with Chrome.
Website operators will manage both conventional and post-quantum certificates through a single system, with no forced migration between the two. Automated renewal signaling will handle certificate replacement in the background during routine updates or security incidents, removing the manual coordination that typically accompanies such changes. A live public health dashboard and reproducible code builds will accompany the launch as transparency measures.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince described the effort as a continuation of the company's mission — twelve years after making HTTPS free and automatic for millions of sites, the company is now attempting to upgrade the web's security foundation before quantum computing renders current encryption obsolete, a coordination challenge he called among the largest in internet history.
Cloudflare is building a certificate authority. The company announced in late September 2026 that it will begin issuing digital certificates—the encrypted credentials websites use to prove their identity and secure traffic—starting in early 2027, with a particular focus on certificates designed to withstand future quantum computers.
The move addresses two separate vulnerabilities in how the internet currently works. First, the certificate business is concentrated among a small handful of dominant authorities. If any one of them fails or gets compromised, the damage spreads across millions of websites that depend on them. Second, the encryption standards that protect most web traffic today are vulnerable to quantum computers, which researchers expect could break them within years. Cloudflare's answer to the first problem is to become another trusted issuer at scale. Its answer to the second is a new certificate type called Merkle Tree Certificates, or MTCs.
To make its certificates trustworthy on older devices—phones and other hardware that no longer receive software updates—Cloudflare has agreed to acquire publicly trusted root key material from GlobalSign. That deal should close within two months. The company has also applied to the root programs run by Chrome, Apple, Microsoft, and Mozilla, the four major gatekeepers that tell browsers and devices which certificate authorities to trust. All four applications are still pending. Cloudflare will not begin issuing conventional certificates until those programs accept it.
Merkle Tree Certificates work differently from standard post-quantum certificates. Post-quantum signatures are computationally heavy, and sending them with every connection would slow things down. MTCs instead let a browser verify that a certificate appears in a trusted registry using lightweight cryptographic proofs. Cloudflare co-authored the technical specification for MTCs as a draft standard through the Internet Engineering Task Force and has already run experiments with Chrome to test the approach.
The company plans to offer website operators a single management system for both conventional and post-quantum certificates, with no forced migration between the two. It will use automated renewal signaling—a standard defined in RFC 9773—to replace certificates in the background across millions of sites during routine updates or security incidents, eliminating the manual coordination that typically accompanies certificate changes. Cloudflare also commits to publishing a live public health dashboard and maintaining reproducible code builds, measures meant to ensure transparency as it operates as a public certificate authority.
Matthew Prince, Cloudflare's CEO and co-founder, framed the effort as the next step in the company's long-term mission. Twelve years ago, Cloudflare made HTTPS encryption free and automatic for millions of websites. Now, he said, the company is trying to upgrade the web's security infrastructure before quantum computers render current encryption obsolete—a coordination challenge he described as among the largest in internet history. The first production Merkle Tree Certificates are scheduled to issue in the first quarter of 2027, assuming the root program approvals come through.
Citações Notáveis
Upgrading the web's security before quantum computers can break it is one of the biggest coordination challenges in the history of the Internet.— Matthew Prince, Cloudflare CEO and co-founder
Quer a matéria completa?
Leia o original em Help Net Security ↗