Unprotected Forum Topics

[ManFromGlass]

For me the main Forum topic list on the ipad shows up as what I assume is Https which I believe means some kind of better security.

Lately when I go into individual topics the ipad puts the red exclamation mark in front of the page address which I think means unprotected or??

I believe this is random but I’ll keep an eye out. I have no idea what this means. I’ll also check from the tower.

[ConcertinaChap]

Try touching or clicking on the exclamation and see if it gives a message to tell you what the problem is. I believe the whole site uses HTTPS, as opposed to HTTP, which means the transmission of the text is encrypted and so cannot be read by a black hat third party en route, so I'd be very surprised if the exclamation mark related to that.

CC

[BWC]

It's not so that it can't be read by an attacker, it's so that it can't be spoofed. When you see https before soundonsound.com, it means the server that sent you the page also has a valid certificate that's been verified as belonging to SOS. The certificate exchange and validation is where the encryption comes in to play.

Acronym time:
The "S" in HTTPS indicates TLS (Transport Layer Security) which used to be called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) but the term "sockets" fell out of fashion, so SSL was changed to TLS. ...other letters and numbers were also involved.

[BWC]

... I have no idea what this means. ...

From a modern, reputable website this usually means a certificate issue (they expire, for one), or it could mean that you're looking at a page sent from some other server pretending to be SOS. As CC says, exploring the details offered by the exclamation should give clues.

[Forum Admin]

Hi MFG

Yes, the whole site uses 256-bit encryption and https protocol.

I browse the Forum mostly on my iPad Pro Gen1 and have not seen that error message myself. Please take screenshots next time if you get it again, and email to forumadmin@soundonsound.com please.

I just checked our site's SSL Certificate and all is fine - it'll get auto-renewed in April 2023 -- see screenshot here: