Has anyone had a browser pop up box that indicates the site certificate is inval
ID: 3918095 • Letter: H
Question
Has anyone had a browser pop up box that indicates the site certificate is invalid, out of date, or does not match the site? Did you click and go to the site anyway? What do you think most users would do in that situation? How can attackers exploit that reaction? Has anyone had a browser pop up box that indicates the site certificate is invalid, out of date, or does not match the site? Did you click and go to the site anyway? What do you think most users would do in that situation? How can attackers exploit that reaction?Explanation / Answer
Yes, certificate errors do happen, more often than not. I usually click and go to the site anyway. Usually, I don't think most users do this, especially people at work visiting an external website. This is because of the many reasons a certificate error can arise. The reason may be as small as wrong date and time settings on our PC, or may be a big one in which the certificate signer is not trusted, which may mean that we are, in fact, visiting a malicious website. This is because certificates are proofs of identity. When we see the SSL padlock in the browser's address bar or at the bottom of the browser it means that a secure connection between your browser and the website has been established. However, for this connection to be with the real website, the certificate must be valid. This warning appears when the website is using an invalid SSL certificate.
Attackers can exploit our decision to visit the website anyway by getting some informtion from our device. This is because by visiting the website, we are going to a malicious place, and if not careful, we may fall prey to a hacker who may pry important or sensitive information out from our device.
The usual reaction to such errors is to check for correct date and time settings on the computer, and then, before visiting, making sure that we're visiting a familiar website and not a phished copy of that website.
Related Questions
drjack9650@gmail.com
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.