Ben Laurie

Career

Ben Laurie is an English software engineer with significant contributions to internet security, open-source software, and online gaming. He is perhaps most widely recognized for writing Apache-SSL, the foundational implementation that underpinned most SSL-enabled versions of the Apache HTTP Server. This work helped establish secure HTTP communication as a practical standard across the web.

Laurie also developed the MUD Gods, a multi-user dungeon notable for its innovative inclusion of online creation as part of its endgame — a design approach that was considered forward-thinking within the MUD community at the time.

In addition to his software work, Laurie has authored several articles, papers, and books, and has pursued research interests in ideal knots and their practical applications.

Certificate Transparency

One of Laurie's most consequential contributions to internet security is his involvement in the development of Certificate Transparency (CT), a framework designed to make the issuance of TLS certificates publicly auditable and verifiable. In 2024, Laurie, along with Al Cutter, Emilia Käsper, and Adam Langley, received the Levchin Prize for "creating and deploying Certificate Transparency at scale." The Levchin Prize recognizes real-world contributions to cryptography and security.

WikiLeaks Advisory Board

Laurie was at one point a member of WikiLeaks' Advisory Board. He has stated publicly that his involvement with the organization was minimal and that, beyond Julian Assange, he had little knowledge of who operated the site. In 2009, Laurie expressed reservations about WikiLeaks' ability to protect whistleblowers, stating that the technical measures the platform relied upon were not sufficiently robust to withstand the resources available to a determined government adversary.