Melih Abdulhayoglu is a Turkish-American engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, and internet security advocate. Melih became interested in technology at a young age, building his first electronic circuit at nine years old. After obtaining a degree in electric engineering at Bradford University, Melih established himself as an innovator in the tech field. His myriad accomplishments include:
- Founding Comodo Group
In 1998, Melih founded cybersecurity company Comodo Group. Over the next two decades Comodo experienced massive growth under Melih’s leadership, becoming the largest SSL certificate authority in the world with 50% market share. In 2017, Melih sold 50% of the certificate authority portion of the business and shifted his focus to enterprise and consumer cybersecurity, providing free and paid tools, including endpoint security, consumer antivirus, website security, IT management software, antispam, and more.
- Initiating the Certification Authority Browser Forum
Since founded Comodo in 1998, Melih’s mission has been to make the internet a safer place for everyone. But for Melih, founding Comodo was only the first step. Aware that he couldn’t build a safer internet by himself, in 2005, Melih initiated the Certification Authority Browser Forum (CA/B Forum), a voluntary consortium of certificate authorities, internet browser developers, and operating system vendors that issues industry standards and best practices. As of 2019, the forum includes over forty certificate authority members and six major browser vendors.
- Founding the Common Computing Security Standards Forum (CCSS)
In 2009, recognizing a major emerging issue with “scareware” and malware disguised as legitimate antivirus software preying on consumers, in 2009, Melih initiated the Common Computing Security Standards Forum (CCSS), an organization of security software vendors, OS providers and browser developers, working to protect consumers by maintaining a whitelist of trusted antivirus vendors.
- Awards and Recognitions
In 2008, Melih Abdulhayoglu’s efforts to promote Internet security earned him the Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year® award in Information Technology Software for New Jersey. In 2011 Melih was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Global Excellence Awards. In 2016 he was awarded the Mustafa V. Koç Business Leadership Award. He is a frequent speaker on Internet security issues and has appeared as an expert on various media outlets, including Fox TV and USA Today.