thawte site using verisign?

[gymshoe]

So i'm doing some due-diligence research on the three ssl cert authorities and i go to thawte's webpage and looking around.
I click on a link to read about thawte's 128-bit encryption thing and the browser takes it's time loading.... i glance at where it's loading and it's saying www.verisign.com ...

huh? ...thawte has stuff from verisign?
so i dig a little more (good mozilla)...
and apparently thawte has ..at least one page ...that has a form that goes to verisign ....some images coming from verisign...who knows what else...

try it.
i started from here
http://www.thawte.com/html/RETAIL/sgc/index.html

then clicked on the link at the very bottom that says
"Click here to test SSL for FREE!"

as the page is loading, it'll contact verisign for data..


what's this all mean? ... is thawte simply doing business with verisign? ..and if so...WHY? .. or does verisign have a stake in thawte...or are they the same company? running under different names.. (this could happen..i know of 3 local computer stores that are more likely than not owned by the same person..how? ..one of the websites privacy statment or something lists one of it's competitor's name in its text..

okay..enough of my rumor making...back to working on my site..

[Rich]

Thawte was purchased by, and is fully owned by, Verisign.

[gymshoe]

well that's a bummer...yet kinda cool at the same time..

so are thawte's and verisign's ssl certs....the same?

[Rich]

so are thawte's and verisign's ssl certs....the same?
No, they are operated as independent CA's. Thawte has its own root certificate separate from verisign's.