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Starting today, the lifespan of new TLS certificates will be limited to 398 days, a little over a year, from the previous maximum certificate lifetime of 27 months (825 days). In a move that's meant to boost security, Apple, Google, and Mozilla are set to reject publicly rooted digital certificates in their respective web browsers that expire more than 13 months (or 398 days) from their creation date. The lifespan of SSL/TLS certificates has shrunk significantly over the last decade. In 2011, the Certification Authority Browser Forum (CA/Browser Forum), a consortium of certification authorities and vendors of browser software, imposed a limit of five years, bringing down the certificate validity period from 8-10 years. Subsequently, in 2015, it was cut short to three years and to two years again in 2018. Although the proposal to reduce certificate lifetimes to one year was shot down in a ballot last September , the measure has been overwhelmingly supported by the browser...

Starting today with the release of Chrome 68, Google Chrome prominently marks all non-HTTPS websites as 'Not Secure' in its years-long effort to make the web a more secure place for Internet users. So if you are still running an insecure HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) website, many of your visitors might already be greeted with a 'Not Secure' message on their Google Chrome browser warning them that they can't trust your website to be secure. By displaying ' Not Secure ,' Google Chrome means that your connection is not secure because there is no SSL Certificate to encrypt your connection between your computer and the website's server. So, anything sent over a non-HTTPS connection is in plain text, like your password or payment card information, allowing attackers to snoop or tamper with your data. The non-https connection has been considered dangerous particularly for web pages that transfer sensitive information—like login pages and payment...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

As a punishment announced last October, Google will no longer trust SSL/TLS certificate authorities WoSign and its subsidiary StartCom with the launch of Chrome 61 for not maintaining the "high standards expected of CAs." The move came after Google was notified by GitHub's security team on August 17, 2016, that Chinese Certificate Authority WoSign had issued a base certificate for one of GitHub's domains to an unnamed GitHub user without authorization. After this issue had been reported, Google conducted an investigation in public as a collaboration with Mozilla and the security community, which uncovered several other cases of WoSign misissuance of certificates. As a result, the tech giant last year began limiting its trust of certificates backed by WoSign and StartCom to those issued before October 21st, 2016 and has been removing whitelisted hostnames over the course of several Chrome releases since Chrome 56. Now, in a Google Groups post published ...

A security researcher has disclosed critical issues in the processes and third-party API used by Symantec certificate resellers to deliver and manage Symantec SSL certificates. The flaw, discovered by Chris Byrne, an information security consultant and instructor for Cloud Harmonics, could allow an unauthenticated attacker to retrieve other persons' SSL certificates, including public and private keys, as well as to reissue or revoke those certificates. Even without revoking and reissuing a certificate, attackers can conduct "man-in-the-middle" attack over the secure connections using stolen SSL certs, tricking users into believing they are on a legitimate site when in fact their SSL traffic is being secretly tampered with and intercepted. "All you had to do was click a link sent in [an] email, and you could retrieve a cert, revoke a cert, and re-issue a cert," Byrne wrote in a Facebook post published over the weekend. Symantec knew of API Flaws Si...

In an effort to expand its certificate authority capabilities and build the "foundation of a more secure web," Google has finally launched its root certificate authority. In past few years, we have seen Google taking many steps to show its strong support for sites using HTTPS, like: Giving more preference to HTTPS websites in its search rankings than others. Warning users that all HTTP pages are not secure. Starting an industry-wide initiative, Certificate Transparency − an open framework to log, audit, and monitor certificates that CAs have issued. However, Google has been relying on an intermediate Certificate Authority (Google Internet Authority G2 - GIAG2) issued by a third party, with the latest suppliers being GlobalSign and GeoTrust, which manages and deploys certificates to Google's products and services. Google announced Thursday the creation of its own certified, and independent Root Certificate Authority called Google Trust Services , allowing...

Although over three months remaining, Google has planned a New Year gift for the Internet users, who're concerned about their privacy and security. Starting in January of 2017, the world's most popular web browser Chrome will begin labeling HTTP sites that transmit passwords or ask for credit card details as " Not Secure " — the first step in Google's plan to discourage the use of sites that don't use encryption. The change will take effect with the release of Chrome 56 in January 2017 and affect certain unsecured web pages that feature entry fields for sensitive data, like passwords and payment card numbers, according to a post today on the Google Security Blog . Unencrypted HTTP has been considered dangerous particularly for login pages and payment forms, as it could allow a man-in-the-middle attacker to intercept passwords, login session, cookies and credit card data as they travel across the network. In the following release, Chrome will flag ...

A Chinese certificate authority (CA) appeared to be making a significant security blunder by handing out duplicate SSL certificates for a base domain if someone just has control over its any subdomain. The certificate authority, named WoSign , issued a base certificate for the Github domains to an unnamed GitHub user. But How? First of all, do you know, the traditional Digital Certificate Management System is the weakest link on the Internet today and has already been broken? Billions of Internet users blindly rely on hundreds of Certificate Authorities (CA) around the globe to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of their personal data. But, these CAs have powers to issue valid SSL cert for any domain you own, despite the fact you already have one purchased from another CA. ...and that's the biggest loophole in the CA system. In the latest case as well, WoSign issued a duplicate SSL certificate for GitHub domains without verifying ownership of the base domain. ...

Do you own a custom domain or a blog under the wordpress.com domain name? If yes, then there is good news for you. WordPress is bringing free HTTPS to every blog and website that belongs to them in an effort to make the Web more secure. WordPress – free, open source and the most popular a content management system (CMS) system on the Web – is being used by over a quarter of all websites across the world, and this new move represents a massive shift over to a more secure Internet WordPress announced on Friday that it has partnered with the Electronic Frontier Foundation's " Let's Encrypt " project, allowing it to provide reliable and free HTTPS support for all of its customers that use custom domains for their WordPress.com blogs. Now every website hosted on wordpress.com has an SSL certificate and will display a green lock in the address bar. "For you, the users, that means you'll see secure encryption automatically deployed on ev...

Let's Encrypt has achieved another big milestone by issuing 1 million free Transport Layer Security (TLS) SSL Certificates to webmasters who wish to secure the communications between their users and domains. Let's Encrypt   – operated by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) – is an absolutely free, and open source certificate authority recognized by all major browsers , including Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It is just three months and five days since Let's Encrypt launched a beta version of the service, and the group has crossed 1 Million certificates in use across the Web, Let's Encrypt said in a blog post on Tuesday. Let's Encrypt allows anyone to obtain Free SSL/TLS (Secure Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security) certificates for their web servers. Backed by companies including EFF, Akamai and Mozilla, the Let's Encrypt project started offering Free HTTPS certs to everyone fro...

Who else didn't see this coming? It was so obvious as I stressed earlier that the  Let's Encrypt free HTTPS certificates would not just help legitimate website operators to encrypt its users' traffic, but also help criminals to bother innocent users with malware through secure sites. Let's Encrypt allows anyone to obtain free SSL/TLS ( Secure Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security ) certificates for their web servers that encrypt all the Internet traffic passed between a server and users. Let's Encrypt is recognized by all major browsers, including Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The organization started offering Free HTTPS certs to everyone from last month, and it is very easy for anyone to set up an HTTPS website in a few simple steps ( How to Install Free SSL Cert ). However, the most bothersome part is that Let's Encrypt free SSL certs are not only used by website owners to secure its...

Another Big Milestone – Let's Encrypt is now offering Free HTTPS certificates to everyone. Let's Encrypt has opened to the public, allowing anyone to obtain Free SSL/TLS ( Secure Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security ) certificates for their web servers and to set up HTTPS websites in a few simple steps ( mentioned below ). Let's Encrypt – an initiative run by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) – is a new, free, and open certificate authority recognized by all major browsers , including Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The Free SSL Certification Authority is now in public beta after testing a trial among a select group of volunteers. Why Let's Encrypt? Let's Encrypt promised to offer a certificate authority (CA) which is: Free – no charge for HTTPS certs. Automatic – the installation, configuration as well as the renewal of the certificates do not require any administrator a...

Yes, Let's Encrypt is now one step closer to its goal of offering Free HTTPS certificates to everyone. Let's Encrypt  – the free, automated, and open certificate authority (CA) – has announced that its Free HTTPS certificates are Now Trusted and Supported by All Major Browsers . Let's Encrypt enables any website to protect its users with free SSL/TLS (Secure Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security) certificates that encrypt all the Internet traffic passed between a site and users. Not only free, but the initiative also makes HTTPS implementation easier for all website or online shopping site owner to ensure its users that their browser activities and transactions are safe from snoopers. Let's Encrypt issued its first free HTTPS certificate last month and was working with other major browsers to recognize its certificate as a trusted authority. Let's Encrypt achieved a New Milestone Let's Encrypt has received cross-signatures from SSL ...

Last fall the non-profit foundation EFF ( Electronic Frontier Foundation ) launched an initiative called Let's Encrypt that aimed at providing Free Digital Cryptographic Certificates (TLS) to any website that needs them. Today, Let's Encrypt – a free automated Open-source Certificate Authority (CA) – has signed its first certificate, hitting what it calls a major milestone to encrypt all of the Web. Let's Encrypt enables any Internet site to protect its users with free SSL/TLS (Secure Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security) certificates that encrypt all the data passed between a website and users. Not just free, but the initiative also makes HTTPS implementation easier for any website or online shopping site owner in order to ensure the security of their customers' data. "Forget about hours (or sometimes days) of muddling through complicated programming to set up encryption on a website, or yearly fees," EFF explains . "Let's Encr...

A critical vulnerability resides in AFNetworking could allow an attacker to cripple the HTTPS protection of 25,000 iOS apps available in Apple's App Store via man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks . AFNetworking is a popular open-source code library that lets developers drop networking capabilities into their iOS and OS X products. But, it fails to check the domain name for which the SSL certificate has been issued. Any Apple iOS application that uses AFNetworking version prior to the latest version 2.5.3 may be vulnerable to the flaw that could allow hackers to steal or tamper data, even if the app protected by the SSL (secure sockets layer) protocol . Use any SSL Certificate to decrypt users' sensitive data: An attacker could use any valid SSL certificate for any domain name in order to exploit the vulnerability, as long as the certificate issued by a trusted certificate authority (CA) that's something you can buy for $50. " This meant that a coffee sh...

The most popular and widely used encryption scheme has been found to be weaker with the disclosure of a new attack that could allow attackers to steal credit card numbers, passwords and other sensitive data from transmissions protected by SSL ( secure sockets layer ) and TLS ( transport layer security ) protocols. The attack leverages a 13-year-old weakness in the less secure Rivest Cipher 4 (RC4) encryption algorithm , which is the most commonly used stream cipher for protecting 30 percent of TLS traffic on the Internet today. BAR-MITZVAH ATTACK The attack, dubbed " Bar-Mitzvah ", can be carried out even without conducting man-in-the-middle attack (MITM) between the client and the server, as in the case of most of the previous SSL hacks. Itsik Mantin, a researcher from security firm Imperva, presented his findings in a research titled, " Attacking SSL when using RC4 " at the Black Hat Asia security conference Thursday in Singapore. Bar Mitzv...

Gogo — one of the largest providers of in-flight Internet service — has been caught issuing fake SSL certificates, allowing the inflight broadband provider to launch man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks on its own users, view passwords and other sensitive information. The news came to light when security engineer Adrienne Porter Felt , who works on Google Chrome's security team, was served the phony SSL certificate while trying to connect to Google's video service YouTube. She noticed that the SSL certificate was signed by an untrusted issuer and wasn't issued by Google, but rather by Gogo itself. Felt publicly posted details about the spoofed certificate on Twitter and also provided a screenshot of the HTTPS certificate Gogo issued her when she visited YouTube. Felt tweeted , " Hey, @Gogo, why are you issuing *.google.com certificates on your planes? " Alike other unauthorized certificates, the fake Gogo certificate would generate warnings by virtually all modern bro...

Google is ready to give New Year gift to the Internet users, who are concerned about their privacy and security. The Chromium Project's security team has marked all HTTP web pages as insecure and is planning to explicitly and actively inform users that HTTP connections provide no data security protections. There are also projects like Let's Encrypt , launched by the non-profit foundation EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) in collaboration with big and reputed companies including Mozilla, Cisco, and Akamai to offer free HTTPS/SSL certificates for those running servers on the Internet at the beginning of 2015. This is not the first time when Google is taking initiative to encourage website owners to switch to HTTPS by default. Few months ago, the web Internet giant also made changes in its search engine algorithm in an effort to give a slight ranking boost to the websites that use encrypted HTTPS connections. "We, the Chrome Security Team, propose that ...

As days are passing, encryptio n is becoming a need for every user sitting online. Many tech giants including Google, Apple and Yahoo! are adopting encryption to serve its users security and privacy at its best, but according to Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) , the high-tech Web security should not be limited to the wealthiest technology firms. The non-profit foundation EFF has partnered with big and reputed companies including Mozilla, Cisco, and Akamai to offer free HTTPS/SSL certificates for those running servers on the internet at the beginning of 2015, in order to encourage people to encrypt users' connections to their websites. Until now, switching web server over to HTTPS from HTTP is something of a hassle and expense for website operators and notoriously hard to install and maintain it. But, after the launch of this new free certificate authority (CA), called Let's Encrypt , it will be even more easy for people to run encrypted, secure HTTPS websites. ...