Google's Chrome browser will name and shame non-https websites from July 2018. It's official!

When Google says jump, we say 'how high'... On this occasion, we're happy to do so. Since June 2014 Google has promoted the idea of HTTPS Everywhere. The notion that browsing should be made more secure by encrypting the data to and from your computer. You can tell if a website is using this secure protocol by the prefix to the web address in your browser. If it shows HTTP, then the data is not encrypted. If it shows HTTPS, then the communication is protected against eavesdropping and tampering. You're reading this on our site over a secure connection. In the past, the browsers we use to surf the internet have not alerted users if a site was not encrypted. However, Google announced yesterday via its Chromium blog that from July 2018 their Chrome browser would warn users that their connection was 'Not secure'. Chrome is the most popular browser in the world with approximately 56% of market share. This statistic makes the announcement particularly significant to web site owners who are likely to see a drop in their site's credibility if this message is shown to visitors, more importantly, if they are customers looking to make a purchase or share private data. In Chrome 68, the omnibox will display “Not secure” for all HTTP pages.[/caption] Google also announced in August 2014 that the security of a site would be used as a ranking factor in its search results. Although a lightweight ranking factor, not serving data over HTTPS may affect the position your website appears in the search results. The good news is that TJS can help you make sure your site is served over an HTTPS connection. TJS can purchase, on your behalf, a secure certificate from a trusted source that can be installed on your site to provide the necessary level of security defined in Google's latest Chrome announcement. If you'd like TJS to upgrade the security of your website don't hesitate to get in touch as the countdown to Chrome's implementation date has started.