GOOGLE IS A TRICKSTER

Many prisons around the country are becoming increasingly concerned about the development of wifi breaches occurring amongst prison contraband. Several prison security systems are breached annually, and the cybersecurity industry grows in response.

This is no surprise as the “social media generation” approaches the age of maturity. Many youngsters are technologically advancing faster than companies can roll out software updates.

IF IT DOESN’T MAKE MONEY, IT’S ART.

I was in middle school when I got my first cell phone, and in college when I bought my first smartphone. However, kids today learn to navigate technology before they can speak.

In September, Google announced an update that would change the game for many business owners. “The penalty for having an unqualified [SSL] certificate is that Chrome doesn’t display the nice green banner that certificates generally have. What they were planning on doing is marking all non-certificate [sites] as untrusted. That’s going to be a real motivator to get people to get certificates.”

Once implemented, Certificate Transparency alertS Chrome users to “untrusted” websites. You’ll notice a little red writing where you normally see “http.” Google is telling the user that the site is non-verified, meaning it doesn’t have a known or registered owner. Typically, verified sites display a green “https” denoting SSL certificate compliance.

If you have an accounting, finance, legal, or medical business – your conversion rate would likely be affected by this update. Businesses that don’t accept payments have been in the clear for years. However, with growing cybersecurity threats and Google’s algorithmic updates, this is changing fast. Consequently, they’re now forcing everyone to become verified.

Experts say by tightening rules around SSL certificates issued to websites, Google was hoping to reduce the number of certificate authorities that have been lax about whom they issue certificates to. In the past, a number of certificate authorities have initiated opportunities for criminals to spoof a domain certificate to steal personal info from users.

However, this move is a welcome improvement to the existing framework that can easily be abused by hackers.

THE UPDATE DIDN’T HAPPEN

Google does alert some users that they are visiting “unsafe” websites, sometimes. Although generally, it’s still very easy to navigate the web. Even though Google’s update didn’t bring down the hammer as users anticipated, it’s still a good idea to convert your business website over to HTTPS. In other words, it’s more secure, trustworthy, and stoic. Eventually, they will require all websites to be SSL compliant. You might as well stay ahead of the game.

If you need help with getting switched over, shoot us an email: Staff@DarlingWebDesign.com