Navigation indicator

Google Chrome Now Labelling All HTTP Websites As “Not Secure”

July 24, 2018

Today is the big day! With the release of version 68 of the Chrome browser, Google now labels all websites accessed over HTTP as “Not Secure”.

What does the “Not Secure” warning mean?

The “Not Secure” warning does not mean your website has been hacked or has a vulnerability. It simply means that the connection from your browser to the website you are visiting is not encrypted.

Google is leading the push for an encrypted web and is using this warning to force website owners to switch to the HTTPS protocol, or risk scaring away your visitors.

How do I enable HTTPS?

To use HTTPS, your website must have a valid SSL certificate installed for your domain name. The good news is that Varial Hosting provides free SSL certificates for all domains hosted on our servers!

For example, Varial customers can log into their cPanel and Webmail interfaces securely over HTTPS from the following locations:

https://cpanel.yourdomain.com/
https://webmail.yourdomain.com/

* Replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain name.

You can also log into your WordPress administrative area securely over HTTPS from an address like:

https://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/

Updating your website for HTTPS

The next step is to use HTTPS across your entire website. This not only offers a security advantage, but can improve search engine rankings and even speed up your website.

Switching to HTTPS may be as easy as redirecting all traffic from http://www.yourdomain.com/ to https://www.yourdomain.com/, however changes to your website code may be required to make your website compatible with HTTPS.

Whether your website will require extensive changes or not really depends on how it has been coded.

We recommend reading over the following articles for more information on how to prepare your website for HTTPS compatibility:

Why is the lock icon not displaying or my website loading incorrectly when accessed over HTTPS?
How do I redirect all visitors to HTTPS?

Please note that it is the responsibility of our customers to update their websites for HTTPS compatibility. If you require assistance with this we recommend consulting with a web design firm to help you to make these changes.

Due to the overwhelming number of questions we are receiving about this, we are now offering a professional HTTP to HTTPS conversion service for WordPress websites for Varial Hosting customers who would prefer to have our experienced staff make these changes for you.

Comments

Leave a Reply