3aIT Blog

 

Google ChromeIt has been the case for a while that users of Google's Chrome browser will have seen a warning when browsing a website without a valid SSL certificate that requires any sort of user input. The latest version of the browser takes this approach a step further.

Once users machines autoupdate Chrome to the latest version launched today (July 24th), this warning will extend to every website and intranet page that isn't loaded over https://.

If you look up at the address bar in your browser for this site, you'll notice that it starts https://www.3ait.... This means that we have an SSL certificate installed. This means that no-one can snoop on any data sent from our server to your device. Banking sites have used this for years to keep your data safe, and there has been a push in recent years to encourage all website owners to use this technology on their sites.

Chrome is by far and away the most popular browser in use at the moment. This means that millions of people will be seeing this warning as they browse round the internet as of today. If you have your own website, and you can't access it over https://, this includes your site. There are no exceptions.

Even ignoring the warning, it has been beneficial to have an SSL certificate for some time. Google has said that it prioritises https websites in their rankings over their http counterparts.

So if you're wondering why you're suddenly seeing this message a lot, this is why. And if you have your own website that isn't accessible over https, you should remedy that as soon as possible. Another thing that is worth checking here is that it is only accessible over https. Try going to the website address in the browser and removing the s from https and loading the page. If you do that on this site, you'll notice that it instantly adds the s back in. If your site doesn't do this, ask whoever deals with it to configure it so that it does. After going to the effort of getting this set up, the last thing you want is people accidentally bypassing it and seeing the warning anyway!