HID, a global provider of identity solutions, announced the acquisition of ZeroSSL, an SSL certificate provider based in Austria. 

The acquisition is said to augment HID’s capabilities in providing protected communications to and from websites, as well as strengthen its reputation as a leading provider of trusted PKI solutions. 

“This acquisition marks another step in expanding our PKI and IoT business,” said Martin Ladstaetter, HID senior vice president and managing director for IAMS. “Bringing ZeroSSL’s established expertise and strong brand into the HID portfolio reinforces our commitment to safeguarding digital transactions while expanding our suite of offerings.” 

SSL certificates create an encrypted connection between a web server and a browser, safeguarding data privacy. Issuing more than 500,000 monthly certificates to more than 2.4 million user accounts globally, ZeroSSL’s offerings include an automated e-commerce platform for SSL certificates and integration services for lifecycle management of those certificates. Without such automation, website operators and owners must manually manage the SSL certificate, thereby risking outages due to human errors and ensuing cybersecurity risks. 

“We welcome ZeroSSL to the HID family and are excited to leverage their platform and technology to enhance the customer experience,” said Björn Lidefelt, excecutive vice president and head of HID. “I look forward to further developing our PKI/IoT solutions as a growth driver for HID.” 

Moving forward, ZeroSSL’s offerings will be integrated into HID’s PKI and IoT Business Unit, allowing HID to be better positioned to provide even stronger authentication, better encryption services, and more comprehensive validation procedures for organizations engaging in large-scale online transactions, the announcement states.