Attention all website, online store and blog owners! This is very important moment to give an attention to secure your site before some major changes take place on the web — including Google Chrome 68. If you missed the February announcement, Google will be marking all HTTP sites as “Not Secure” from this July 2018.
The Google Chrome 68 release in July will mark all HTTP sites as “Not Secure”.
Furthermore, as Google’s mission is to ensure internet users can easily recognise whether sites are safe or not, the Not Secure warning will be prominently displayed on sites without HTTPS secure connection.
In a step to drive the world toward a more secure global internet, Google Chrome began marking all HTTP web pages with forms as insecure last year, as well as HTTP sites opened through an incognito window. In just a year’s time, such a small change pushed 68 percent of Android & Windows traffic and 78 percent of Chrome OS & Mac traffic toward HTTPS. Now, 81 of the top 100 sites are using HTTPS by default.
HOW LONG DO I HAVE TO SECURE MY WEBSITE?
Google estimates the release of Google Chrome 68 sometime at this July 2018. Once they make the change, other browsers will likely begin to follow.
Part of the HTTPS Everywhere movement, Mozilla Firefox has already openly stated with Google that their intent is to make HTTPS the new minimum. As an example, in January 2017, Firefox implemented a policy that began marking form elements on HTTP sites as insecure, and they warn users that any login information could become compromised.
HOW GOOGLE CHROME 68 WILL AFFECT MY SITE?
About 60 percent of all internet traffic utilised through Google Chrome, a change like this will affect all the websites, online stores, blogs on the internet.
If your site does not run HTTPS by default, your visitors will begin to notice a flag next to your domain name at the top address bar of the Google Chrome 68 browser showing that your site is not secure.
Further inspection will reveal a warning to the user that they should abstain from entering any personal information into your site for risk of attackers stealing their data. In fact, the lack of an SSL Certificate on your site has always left your site vulnerable to content injection, such as a visitor’s ISP injecting ads and malware into your site.
WHY SSL CERTIFICATES ARE VERY IMPORTANT?
Google Chrome 68 requirements might not seem like a big deal for site owners that do not process payments or ask for information, but we will repeat it:
All sites need HTTPS encryption and every site can benefit from an SSL Certificate.
Currently, if you do not have an SSL Certificate installed on your site, you are already missing Google’s automatic search ranking boost from back in 2014. Furthermore, Google de-prioritises HTTP sites. With an SSL Certificate installed, your site will have access to powerful API tools that users have come to expect in responsive websites, such as geo-location and audio/video streaming.
If that was not enough motivation, SSL Certificates also unlock a significant performance boost by allowing your site to operate over HTTP/2, which by itself has the capability to improve your load times by up to 40 percent!
Now days, visitors look for green locks on their address bars to feel secure before giving trust to a site. An SSL Certificate shows legitimacy and professionalism by ensuring your users feel protected while browsing. No site is too small. No data is worthless. With Google Chrome 68, it will matter. Installing an SSL Certificate could not be easier with the number of options you have for getting the job done.
WHAT SHOULD I DO NOW?
If you haven’t added an SSL Certificate to your site, now is the time to do so. It is possible you are already scaring off site visitors by not having one.
Don’t worry if you are not tech savvy; our Managed SSL service will install, configure and maintain your SSL Certificate for you. We ensure all of your site pages are correctly deployed with SSL to avoid mixed content errors. Additionally, we take care of ongoing SSL maintenance and renewal so you don’t need to lift a finger.
SRICOMP offers a wide range of SSLs — from Wildcards that cover all subdomains of a domain to Extended Validation (EV) certificates to give your domain a green bar and business verification.
SSL Certificates are so easy, economical and beneficial that it is already a detriment not to have one installed on your site. Do not be left in the smoke. Take the time to install an SSL Certificate on your site and you will never want to go back — Google Chrome 68 or not.
Janarthanan Raju serves as Tech Lead at SRICOMP, helping businesses and companies easily create, manage and grow their endeavors online using internet marketing tools provided by SRICOMP.