Anyone know anything about security certificates?

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury) 09/07/2015 at 21:55 • Filed to: None

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I went to file my weekly unemployment claim, this time using a Mac running 10.6 instead of the usual XP machine I have used in the past (both running the latest version of Chrome). For some reason, when I go to the site I get an indication that that I don’t have an SSL connection (red ‘X’ on the lock next to the address, with https crossed out). Clicking on that red lock gives me a little more information, namely that the site in question uses a weak security configuration (SHA-1 signatures) and that my connection may not be private.

It’s been about 14 years since I worked in information security, so I’m a little rusty on troubleshooting this stuff. I’m guessing that I shouldn’t be too concerned about this since there’s nothing I can do on my end, but please confirm that this diagnosis is accurate.

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/07/2015 at 22:15

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... Why are you using XP? It no longer gets security updates as of like to years ago

BJ > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/07/2015 at 22:17

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It’s ok, but not as secure as it could be.

Because the site uses a “weak” certificate, i.e. one of low quality, your protected communications with the site could more easily be compromised than with a “strong” certificate.

You probably didn’t see this before because the older OS/browser didn’t care to make these warnings. Technology advances quickly, especially in information security.

You can read the certificate information and verify that it was issued to the site you’re trying to access, but beyond that there’s little you can do to protect yourself while visiting the site.

Viggen9er3 > BJ 09/07/2015 at 22:20

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^ this

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua 09/07/2015 at 22:27

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Because I’m too cheap to shell out ridiculous amounts of money to Microsoft for newer OS versions. Most of the time I’m on one of my Macs and they work fine, but I keep this old Dell around for old games and background grunt tasks that I don’t want to take up CPU cycles on my good computers.

boxrocket > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/07/2015 at 22:50

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Windows 7 licenses are cheap, and upgrading from 7 upwards to 10 is fee.

You're just making yourself vulnerable.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > boxrocket 09/07/2015 at 23:35

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Define ‘cheap’...

boxrocket > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 09/08/2015 at 00:04

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Download the .ISO, buy a disused corporate workstation for $40ish with an intact license key, done. The workstation might even have the hard drive with 7 on it, so bonus extra hard drive.