Starting 1^st of August 2016, Comodo will no longer offer SGC variants of our certificates. The move away from SGC to a new certificate type will not impact any website security or browser ubiquity. All Comodo certificates are trusted by 99.9% of browsers and mobile devices and use the very latest security technologies (including SHA-2 algorithms, 2048 signatures and RSA/ECC keys).

Why are we deprecating SGC?

While very important in the early part of the millennium, SGC technology has become increasingly less relevant in recent years. A US government mandate forced browser vendors like Microsoft and Netscape to provide only 40-56 bit encryption in browsers that were intended for overseas markets. SGC allowed website owners to overcome this restriction by ‘stepping up’ the encryption level to 128-bit. Over time, the restriction was relaxed altogether and browsers were allowed to encrypt at the higher levels by default. Unfortunately, many people continued to use these older browsers, which meant SGC played an important role in ensuring these users were protected at the highest levels. Comodo has decided to retire SGC because the number of people still using these older browsers has fallen to insignificant levels. This is in accordance with a general movement away from SGC among major certificate authorities.

After 1^st of August, Comodo suggests you replace any SGC certificates needing renewal with one of the following alternatives:

Existing Certificate	Replacement Certificate
Comodo EV SGC	Comodo EV
Comodo SGC Certificate	Comodo Instant SSL
Comodo Platinum SGC Certificate	Comodo Platinum SSL
Comodo Platinum SGC Wildcard	Comodo Platinum Wildcard

As always, Comodo will work with our customers to ensure this transition goes smoothly. If you have questions, please contact your Comodo account manager or Comodo support directly by submitting a ticket here.