‘Moving towards a more secure web…’ was the headline on Google’s recent security blog post indicating to users the much anticipated changed in Google Chrome that will soon warn users if they are about to use an insecure website. You can read the blog post here.
Starting in January 2017 when Chrome version 56 is released if you visit a website that is asking you to enter a password or credit card information Chrome will automatically place the words ‘Not Secure’ in the web browser address bar indicating to users that transmitting their details via the website will result in the private information being sent as plain text.
Google are making this first step in January 2017 but will gradually extend their insecure warnings in all future versions of Chrome. It won’t be long until any website you visit that is not SSL encrypted on every page will throw a not secure warning in your address bar. A warning like this will be shown on any web page that is not SSL encrypted.
January 2017 Version 56
‘Don’t Delay, Encrypt Today!’ is our advice! Google have given fair warning of this change that is afoot and it’s fair to assume that other browsers will quickly follow suit. Therefore every client who has a website with us needs to prepare now for the release of this version 56 of Chrome in January. We’ll explain below how you can get ready for this and the options that are available for you.
Option One: FREE SSL Certificate & Convert your site to SSL yourselfEvery hosting account on our network now comes with a free SSL certificate as standard provided by either Let’s Encrypt or Comodo. These SSLs are provided as seen with no assistance given. We will help you install the SSL and ensure it is installed. Any work needed to make all pages on your site load correctly with https:// is on you and would be a chargeable support request. Your web developer should be able to help or if you need us to help then see below.
Perhaps you do not feel confident making the changes yourself to your website to make it SSL compliant. Our team can do this for you for a small fee. £20 + VAT will buy 25 minutes of our time to work on converting your entire site to be fully SSL encrypted. This should be more than enough time for the average website but any websites that are more complex we may need to charge more but we will advise in advance before making any charges.
Using our Option Two above you can have your website fully converted to use https:// on every page relatively quickly and well in advance of the “SSL-mageddon” date set by Chrome in January. Talk to our sales team today by clicking here.