The Browser You Choose Matters

 

If you have ever wondered how advertisers know your online shopping habits and search habits, or how they seem to be following you around the web, it’s simple: online tracking and the collection of all your data. One browser service is taking action to stop it, and this announcement should be of interest to everyone who values their privacy and data. Here’s an excerpt from a Mozilla blog post:

“Anyone who isn’t an expert on the internet would be hard-pressed to explain how tracking on the internet actually works. Some of the negative effects of unchecked tracking are easy to notice, namely eerily-specific targeted advertising and a loss of performance on the web. However, many of the harms of unchecked data collection are completely opaque to users and experts alike, only to be revealed piecemeal by major data breaches. In the near future, Firefox will — by default — protect users by blocking tracking while also offering a clear set of controls to give our users more choice over what information they share with sites.”

If you are not using Firefox, try it out. Read the full post here.

Important Information About Website Security

 

We shared this update with Trusty & Company clients who host their websites on our server. While we cannot help or support those who do not host sites on our server, we believe this is valuable information for all businesses who have sites online.

GOOGLE CHROME JULY 2018 UPDATE
Earlier this year Google announced that the July 2018 update to its Chrome web browser (Version 68) will include displaying a new “Not Secure” warning for any website that is not secured with an SSL certificate. If you’re not using an SSL certificate, this could negatively affect your web traffic and the trust visitors have in your site—if they are using the Chrome browser to visit your site. So while this change does not effect your site’s functionality, it may effect a visitor’s perception of your site. Visitors may not want to stick around if they see a “Not Secure” warning. You can find more information on the Google Chrome update on their website here.

DOES YOUR SITE ALREADY HAVE A CERTIFICATE INSTALLED?
It’s easy to find out if your site is using a SSL certificate. Most browsers mark secure connections with a green padlock and/or a message. You can also look at the beginning of your site’s URL displayed in the address bar in any web browser. If it begins https://example.com your site has a certificate installed. If it displays http://example.com (note the missing ‘s’) then it does not.

WHAT IS SSL AND WHAT DOES IT DO?
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It’s a protocol used to encrypt and authenticate the data sent between an application (like your browser) and a web server. This leads to more secure web interactions for both you and the visitors to your website.

Continue reading “Important Information About Website Security”

Keeping Your Website Secure

We recently shared information about a serious security vulnerability and our plans to correct the issue with our web hosting clients. If you are not a Trusty & Company web hosting client, you may want to contact your hosting service to discuss the issue. Our letter to clients reads: Continue reading “Keeping Your Website Secure”