ITinfo: Web Browser Certificates to Expire

E-Commerce Sites To Suffer Hit

Browser but will hurt online sales

ITINFO Sponsor

New Release: The Training Book, Volume 2

ITrain has limited pre-release copies of volume 2 of The Training Book, the handbook for trainers. Through an in-depth review of 67 articles, The Training Book demonstrates quickly and succinctly the steps you must take to become a great trainer.

Pre-release copies may be ordered today through the association's secure website, and quantities are limited.

Order your copy today!

Internet Poll

Have you attended a seminar via e-learning?

	yes
	no
poll archive

Web Browser Certificates to Expire

by Dave Murphy
ISSN 1535-3613

So you think you're fully Y2K compliant? Well get a load of this.

As of midnight, January 1st, you and a few million of your closest friends won't be able to finish any e-commerce transactions. No more ordering warm winter socks from your favorite catalog company, no more extra, after-the-holiday gifts. The problem isn't exactly Y2K-related, but another gotcha caused by time's onward march.

At midnight tomorrow, millions of Internet users will find that their "Certificate Authority" certificate has expired. This means their favorite web browser will create an error message on encrypted e-commerce websites (and all reputable e-commerce sites are encrypted).

The problem will affect all Netscape Navigator versions older than 4.06 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.5 on the Mac. The error messages will report the certificate has expired or your computer has the wrong date. Actually, it's no big deal for the technically astute. Your e-commerce transaction will still be secure. But millions of typical computer users will assume the message means worse and cancel their transactions.

This will hurt e-commerce sales. So if you're an e-tailer, you better learn all you can about this certificate expiration and post a message on your site to help your customers buy from you.

You can fix the expiration glitch by downloading the most recent version of your favorite browser.

Call for Comments

What do you think? Leave your comments on the message center.

References

Netscape
Microsoft
Message Center

Damar Group, Ltd. helps business use technology.

ITINFO is again accepting sponsors. Sponsor messages are included in ITINFO's email newsletter and are permanently posted to DGL's website and online reference areas.

ITINFO is an electronic publication of Damar Group, Ltd., publisher of Training Express computer learning guides. Comments and submissions to info@dgl.com.

Previous issues are on our website at http://dgl.com/itinfo/.

updated December 30, 1999
http://dgl.com/itinfo/1999/it991230.html