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Is this a concern?
obg153
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Texas, United States
Joined: April 07, 2009
KitMaker: 1,063 posts
Armorama: 1,049 posts
Posted: Saturday, October 06, 2018 - 01:11 AM UTC
I'm not well versed in what makes computers work, to me a lot of it runs on FM. The last couple days, each time I pull up the Armorama site, I get this advisement saying "The security certificate for this site has expired or is invalid." Then goes on to advise against going on to the site. I've been ignoring it, but is this just my old computer getting senile, or is there a concern??
CMOT
Staff MemberEditor-in-Chief
ARMORAMA
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England - South West, United Kingdom
Joined: May 14, 2006
KitMaker: 10,954 posts
Armorama: 8,571 posts
Posted: Saturday, October 06, 2018 - 02:01 AM UTC
I have notified the publisher of the issue and thank you.
BogiBg
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Västra Götaland, Sweden
Joined: May 29, 2018
KitMaker: 397 posts
Armorama: 388 posts
Posted: Saturday, October 06, 2018 - 02:04 AM UTC
I had same problem as you. I deleted shortcut from Home screen and put a new one from page I found working without problems. So, this link does not work
https://armorama.kitmaker.net
This does
https://armorama.kitmaker.net
staff_Jim
Staff MemberPublisher
KITMAKER NETWORK
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New Hampshire, United States
Joined: December 15, 2001
KitMaker: 12,571 posts
Armorama: 6,599 posts
Posted: Saturday, October 06, 2018 - 04:18 AM UTC
Hi guys,
It's not really a concern from the standpoint of whether it's safe to use the site, it just doesn't have the proper certificate installed for HTTPS use right now.

To be honest I only even have the HTTPS cert for armorama.com for Google. Users should be using the https://armorama.kitmaker.net domain as that will mean they don't have to re-login to use the other sites as well.

Thanks,
Jim
obg153
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Texas, United States
Joined: April 07, 2009
KitMaker: 1,063 posts
Armorama: 1,049 posts
Posted: Saturday, October 06, 2018 - 03:23 PM UTC
Thanks for info & explanation. Good to know there's no evil lurking on the net. I noticed a similar thread posted by marcb a few hours later (re; Google Chrome). Like I suspected, it's FM.
Dioramartin
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New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
KitMaker: 1,476 posts
Armorama: 1,463 posts
Posted: Saturday, October 06, 2018 - 09:50 PM UTC
It may not be much of a concern for those who’ve never been hacked – yet – but the Chrome warning was valid & the potential risk real, so I’m curious why some just ignored it & used another browser to get onto the site. Do the same with traffic lights huh? But it looks like the majority did take heed, I’ve never seen such a low Visitor count as there is right now – 110...just don’t tell the advertisers.
Scarred
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Washington, United States
Joined: March 11, 2016
KitMaker: 1,792 posts
Armorama: 1,186 posts
Posted: Saturday, October 06, 2018 - 10:51 PM UTC
There are a number of reasons this can happen. One of them is an expired certificate, another can be that the clock on your computer is off (I was having problems with my pc clock on my internet pc for several weeks because the board was failing and finally burned up last month and I kept getting this error), it can also be a fault with the browser or you need to update something or the site owner messed up. When I get this error I will try different browsers to see if the error is repeated. If it is then it I treat it as an issue. If it isn't I'll check to make sure the affected browser has been updated. I don't use chrome except on my tablet but I have it installed on my pc. I'll use Firefox, Palemoon and (shudder) IE before I use chrome. I've had more issues with chrome that I've not had with the others. Some time ago I got a security warning going to google.com while using google chrome. I had to uninstall chrome delete every chrome folder I could find then re-installed it. Last August Google changed reCaptcha it would only work on Chrome on my PC. It took a lot of updating of the other browsers to fix and the browsers forums were lit up with pissed off users until they fixed everything.

With so many browsers out there an issue on one might not be an issue on another so don't freak out, keep your anti-virus up to date, make sure your firewall is turned on, send a message to the site owner and get a VPN.
staff_Jim
Staff MemberPublisher
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New Hampshire, United States
Joined: December 15, 2001
KitMaker: 12,571 posts
Armorama: 6,599 posts
Posted: Sunday, October 07, 2018 - 06:42 PM UTC

Quoted Text

It may not be much of a concern for those who’ve never been hacked – yet – but the Chrome warning was valid & the potential risk real, so I’m curious why some just ignored it & used another browser to get onto the site. Do the same with traffic lights huh? But it looks like the majority did take heed, I’ve never seen such a low Visitor count as there is right now – 110...just don’t tell the advertisers.



Well as someone who FULLY understands how the Internet works I can say without question there is not a high degree of 'risk' using this type of site via normal (non-secure) http or via a secure https connection whose certificate can't be validated. After all using a secure connection simply means the data is being encrypted when sent between the sever and your client. Other than logging in, there is little you do on this site that could be considered highly private. You aren't sharing sensitive bank info, or the like, so no... it's not really that huge a deal.

And people don't get 'hacked' by visiting a site that isn't secure. They get hacked by installing malicious .exe files on their system or sometimes via malicious malware (which can happen on either a secure site or not if it's been infected).

Jim
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