We know we’ve been putting a lot of focus on web security in our last few posts, but there’s a good reason: it’s important! And not only for the people visiting your website, but it’s also becoming more important to the online presence of your business. The urgency to update to the latest security protocols is ramping up even more this month. As of July 1, 2018, if your website is not encrypted with an SSL certificate, visitors using the latest Google Chrome web browser to access your website will be met with a warning that says your website is “Not Secure.”
So, what is an SSL certificate? SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and it is a digital certificate used to authenticate the identity of your website and encrypt the data that is sent to the server. Most websites today collect some form of sensitive data from visitors. Whether in the form of browsing history, fillable forms, or payment options, these all need to be protected against attacks where hackers can intercept and steal the data. Encrypting the data is a crucial step in this protection, which is why SSL certificates are an essential part of web security.
Google has long been a proponent of giving their users a secure experience online, which is why they are taking their efforts one step further. Not only will the Chrome browser show an advanced warning to users, but your search engine results will be negatively impacted as well.
So what will this new Google warning look like?
Websites that have an SSL certificate are indicated by a lock symbol with the word “Secure” in green and look like this in Google’s Chrome browser:
For now, those without SSL certificates will show like this as “Not Secure”, but in the near future, Google intends to show a red triangle with “Not Secure” written in red to bring more attention to the warning:
If your site isn’t sporting an SSL certificate, this likely means that visitors seeing that big red warning aren’t likely to remain on your site for long (or at all). But there is good news; implementing an SSL certificate is a relatively simple process in most cases, if your website platform supports them. And to be honest, if your platform doesn’t offer the ability to incorporate an SSL certificate, then you need to find another platform. But we know this can all be a little confusing. If you aren’t sure whether your website is protected, or if your platform supports SSL certificates at all, reach out to us today and we’ll be happy to review your site’s certificate status.
With a little investigating, we’ll make sure to get your website up to date and ready to go with these new regulations. Working with us, it will be “EZY” to bring your site’s security certs up to date in no time at all!