The little padlock in a browser's address bar rested on certificates that VeriSign issued. In 1998 shoppers were nervous about typing a credit card number into a website. Encryption could protect the data in transit. People also needed proof that the site was genuine. VeriSign provided that proof, and browsers checked it automatically. When VeriSign went public in January 1998, it was becoming a trusted third party for the whole web.

A Notary for the Web

VeriSign was spun out of RSA Data Security in 1995, with Jim Bidzos, RSA's leader, as its founding force. The bet was that online trust would need a neutral authority, much like a notary. VeriSign checked the identity of businesses and signed their certificates. Browsers came preloaded to trust VeriSign's signature. That trust put VeriSign at the center of online commerce.

Keeper of .com

VeriSign priced its offering at $14 a share in January 1998, and the stock rose hugely in the boom. In 2000 it bought Network Solutions, which ran the registry for .com and .net domain names. VeriSign later sold its certificate business to Symantec and kept the registry. It remains a public company today. Its registry still handles every .com address on the internet.

Cover: Woman Sealing a Letter, Etienne Fessard. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a woman sealing a letter (trust and identity).