Tuesday 14th February 2017
If you’re a website owner/manager, then you probably already know the importance of internet security – and if you’ve been getting a Chrome security warning on your website login pages since the start of 2017, then this article is essential reading...
With in excess of 480 million cyber attacks and security breaches in 2015 alone, both website managers and web browsers have a responsibility to provide a safe user experience, which is why some sites are starting to see this security warning cropping up.
The Chrome security warning only shows for users operating version 56 (+) of the browser, and only occurs where the page transmits passwords via HTTP rather than HTTPS. If it applies to your website login function, you’re going to need to address it sooner rather than later.
Well, quite simply, it’s a matter of trust. If someone is logging into your website through Chrome, and they see a ‘not secure’ warning when they go to input their login details, they’re going to pause for a moment to decide whether or not they want to take the risk of their data being breached by using an insecure website.
If you operate an ecommerce store, this could result in potential customers ‘bouncing’ right off your site and going to a competitor with a secure site, served over the correct internet protocol. If your users are relying on your site to deliver a service, they may start to worry about your security levels, which could leave them looking for an alternative provider.
HTTPS is the method used to secure communications between the user and the website, by encrypting the connection and verifying the identity of the server that the user is connecting to. Modern browsers represent a secure HTTPS website by displaying a padlock in the address bar to indicate that the connection is secure.
If the pages on your website that transmit information, namely passwords, isn’t served up by the HTTPS protocol, the data transfer is deemed by Google Chrome to be unsafe, so they issue a warning to users to ensure they understand that their password information isn’t protected.
To set up HTTPS on your website, you will need to purchase an SSL certificate from a trusted provider, and install it on your website.
It’s crucial to demonstrate that you take data security seriously, so if your site is sending out this ‘not secure’ warning, you really need to rectify the problem as soon as possible to reassure your users that you’re doing what you can to protect them.
So how do you fix it? It’s pretty simple really, and can be rolled out by your web developer in next to no time – you just need to enable SSL.
What’s SSL? It stands for ‘Secure Sockets Layer’ and is the industry standard technology for creating encrypted data transfers between servers and browser. Combining HTTP and SSL on your website implements HTTPS as your communication protocol, and with it, that much needed secure connection.
Invent Partners provides SSL certificates to our clients, allowing them to provide HTTPS access to their website and avoid this new Chrome security warning so our clients can give that essential peace of mind to their users.
If you need help getting an SSL certificate and ensuring HTTPS is working on your website, give us a call on 01904 636677 and we’ll be happy to get your website security back on track.
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