Chrome - Internet Security Issues

Today is bill paying day and as usual, I run rampage on the web to zip up water, power, cable/internet, etc. However, today is also showing secure connections being quite difficult. Of the six stops, only one insured security.

This has led to making calls from a land-line phone for payments.

Question 1: Has anyone else, using Chrome, Firefox, IE or otherwise, noticed this today or, perhaps, even just recently?

Question 2: I have an excellent security/virus program (Avira) that has never, ever failed. Is there any other level of security I should seek out to add to it?

I appreciate any informed input to this.

Thanks in advance,

-Redoubt

...

The best security is not being an idiot online. A lot of people will click everything and anything, download this and download that, Go to sites that look sketchy as hell etc. But you seem to know what you're doing, You spotted a cert issue so good on you. that's more then most people could do unfortunately.

If your running ad block plus, Nix it. Replace it with uBlock Origin (Much better). Also be wary of any other addons you may have installed =)

a reply to: Tjoran

Thanks... will give it a shot.

a reply to: redoubt
No website can "insure" security. That should be evident to everyone at this point. Even the gubermint is not safe from a proficient hacker. Is there some kind of message you received from a website or Avira that gave you pause?

Just a thought that came to me, These none secured website certs, Did you try to access them as https and, Do they go threw a payment processor (Already secured)

a reply to: Klassified

I got a small pop-up that said that the site's security could not be confirmed... and then another and another.

My local electric company even redirected me to a page that said their payment page's security system was down. That's why I wondered whether it wasn't something more widespread.

a reply to: redoubt

Could be that a lot of certs would be expiring right about now. And they need to renewed.

Is the clock on your computer, and your time zone, correct?

Only has to be off by a little bit to cause problems with SSL certs.

originally posted by: Tjoran
Just a thought that came to me, These none secured website certs, Did you try to access them as https and, Do they go threw a payment processor (Already secured)

The addresses were https but there was a ! in a triangle in front on two of them. Hovering my cursor over them gave me a small text box that said security was not confirmed.

originally posted by: lordcomac
Is the clock on your computer, and your time zone, correct?

Only has to be off by a little bit to cause problems with SSL certs.

Yup... she's good.

originally posted by: Tjoran
a reply to: redoubt

Could be that a lot of certs would be expiring right about now. And they need to renewed.

As I understand it, this is the end of the fiscal year... this could be a factor for corps that renew on budgets.

Thanks for all the info and suggestions.

Will check back in regularly and add anything new should it come up.

Thanks again, all!

Got an example of a site giving you trouble?
You can pull the cert and see its expiration date fairly easily. I've not been out and about on the internet much, but these days SSL certs are usually replaced before they expire- and due to the nature of web services the expiration dates are all pretty well spread out.

If you can confirm that you're seeing ssl warnings for a given site and someone else isn't, your traffic may be under direct surveillance- likely by someone not well connected, as anyone high up the chain would just have the private key for the cert and decrypt the traffic...

a reply to: lordcomac

Noted.

a reply to: Tjoran

"If your running ad block plus, Nix it. Replace it with uBlock Origin (Much better)."

Swapped them and so far, uBlock is working great. Thanks