Founded by Mark Shuttleworth in South Africa, Thawte was the first certificate authority to issue SSL certificates to public entities outside of the United States. In 2000, Thawte was acquired by Symantec and has become a key member of the Symantec family of trust brands. To date, Thawte has issued more than 945,000 SSL and code signing certificates since 1995, protecting identities and transactions in over 240 countries.