"That website is not secure" messages ????

[Richard Sinkler]

Lately, almost every website I want to visit, I get the warning that the site is not secure because it doesn't support HTTPS. That includes this site and many others that I know have HTTPS in their URL. This us happening on all 5 devices that I use for internet, my Android phone, my Android tablet, my iPad, my laptop, and my desktop.

It gets me a little concerned. I just switched from AVG Anti-virus to Norton 360 on my 2 computers and 2 Android devices, but not the iPad. And I think it started before I switched.

Any ideas?

[Wiz Feinberg]

I'm not getting that warning here and I use a self built PC and a Galaxy phone. It could be your anti vurus overthinking the certificates.

The way SSL certificates work is that they typically have to be renewed every three months (Let's Encrypt). Sometimes there is a temporary delay or glitch in the auto-renewal that renders the certificates as expired, hence invalid. It happens to my websites every three months. I have to do technical stuff to fix the problem. It only takes a couple minutes, but in the meantime my websites are marked as insecure to the World.

If a website has been hacked there is usually evidence of it (defacements, unusual ads, spam links, redirection to other undesirable sites, instant downloads, etc). Your browser may totally block you from opening any page, especially on Chrome browsers, or if, like me, you have the Malwarebytes Browser Guard plugin. You can bypass the warning if you feel it is in error. When I see those warnings and it is a website I am friends with, I notify the Webmaster. If that is me, I investigate.

FYI: The most usually hacked websites are those running on WordPress. It is almost trivial to hack plugins for WordPress for even a beginner to the tradecraft. I see dozens of hostile probes every day in my logs. Hundreds are blocked daily by my CDN, Cloudflare. If I ran WordPress it would almost be a fulltime job protecting my websites. Forums running on PHP are also big targets if they are using outdated software.

I hope this isn't too confusing. I can't think of any way to simplifiy this complicated issue.

[Richard Sinkler]

Since I use Chrome on all devices, I might try another browser for a while and see if only happens on Chrome.

[Wiz Feinberg]

May I suggest Firefox?