Neowin News Feed for: Https

Firefox CRLite boosts security and privacy without compromise

Paul Hill — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 08:38:01 +0000

Mozilla released Firefox 142 yesterday, bringing with it a new feature called CRLite. This is able to efficiently handle certificate revocations securely and privately, all offline. Read more...

Google says Chrome is about to get a lot more secure with default HTTPS, download warnings

Sayan Sen — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 16:30:02 +0000

Chromium has announced that it will default to HTTPS on all web pages soon. The change is coming to make browsing more secure. It will also warn against potentially insecure connection downloads. Read more...

Google Cloud blocks largest DDoS attack ever, beating Cloudflare's previous record with ease

Usama Jawad — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 06:06:01 +0000

Google has announced that it now wears the crown for blocking the largest DDoS attack ever. Its DDoS attack peaked at 46 million requests per second which is 76% higher than Cloudflare's best. Read more...

Microsoft is finally offering Windows Update Catalog over an HTTPS connection

Sayan Sen — Sun, 03 Apr 2022 15:54:01 +0000

The standalone Windows Update packages offered through the Microsoft Update Catalog website are finally being provided via a secure HTTPS connection. Earlier, these updates were distributed via HTTP. Read more...

Microsoft might replace the HTTPS lock icon in the Edge address bar to avoid confusion

Usama Jawad — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 10:22:02 +0000

It appears that Microsoft is exploring the idea of replacing the HTTPS lock icon in the Edge address bar. Google had noted that some people mistakenly think that it indicates a site's trustworthiness. Read more...

Mozilla releases Firefox 93 with AVIF image support

Paul Hill — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 17:26:01 +0000

Mozilla has released Firefox 93 with AVIF image support, SmartBlock 3.0, warnings against insecure downloads and performance improvements. Your installation should automatically update to Firefox 93. Read more...

Google Chrome will default to HTTPS for incomplete URLs on Android and desktop

Jay Bonggolto — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 03:18:02 +0000

Google is rolling out Chrome 90 with a new update that makes browsing some websites more secure. The browser will load a domain via HTTPS by default instead of the less secure HTTP protocol. Read more...

Linux documentation switches to HTTPS to boost security

Paul Hill — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 04:50:01 +0000

The Linux kernel developers have switched links in the documentation over to HTTPS. The move aims to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks against kernel developers, luckily no such attacks have occurred. Read more...

Let's Encrypt has issued its billionth certificate

Paul Hill — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 19:30:01 +0000

Let's Encrypt has announced that it has issued its billionth certificate. The service first left beta in April 2016 and quickly issued 10 million and 100 million certificates to help secure the web. Read more...

Google Chrome will begin blocking insecure downloads on HTTPS sites

Abhay V — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 21:14:01 +0000

Google has announced that it will begin blocking insecure, non-HTTPS downloads on HTTPS sites. Executables will begin being blocked in Chrome 82, with more mixed content types being added gradually. Read more...

Chrome 80 arrives today with potentially site-breaking cookie changes [Update]

Paul Hill — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 08:38:02 +0000

Google releases Chrome 80 on the stable channel today. The new update includes changes to SameSite Cookies which bolster security but may also introduce breakage if a site hasn't been updated. Read more...

Mozilla and Google stop Kazakh government from intercepting traffic

Paul Hill — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 13:40:01 +0000

Mozilla and Google have taken measures to invalidate a root CA certificate from being used by the Kazakh government in Firefox and Chrome to intercept users' secure HTTPS connections to websites. Read more...

The next version of Chrome might break a few websites

João Carrasqueira — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 18:04:01 +0000

With the release of Chrome 70, Google is removing trust for some security certificates issued by Symantec, meaning that some popular websites still using them might stop working after the update. Read more...

Google Registry releases .page top-level domain with SSL by default

Paul Hill — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 16:41:57 +0000

Google has announced the availability of .page top-level domains. The firm has opened an Early Access Program but for an extra fee you can buy a domain right now from one of Google's partners. Read more...

Let's Encrypt recently passed 100M secured sites mark

Paul Hill — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 22:08:01 +0000

Let's Encrypt has now secured over 100 million websites world wide. Let's Encrypt aims to make it easy for site admins to switch HTTPS on to give end users more security over their data. Read more...

'Secure' label on HTTPS sites will disappear with Chrome 69 in September

Jay Bonggolto — Fri, 18 May 2018 16:36:02 +0000

Google plans to introduce a number of changes to how Chrome treats HTTPS and HTTP pages, starting with the September rollout of Chrome 69 which will remove the "Secure" label on HTTPS sites. Read more...

EFF rolls out continual ruleset updates for HTTPS Everywhere

Boyd Chan — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 11:06:02 +0000

In a bid to distribute ruleset updates in a more timely manner for HTTPS Everywhere, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has now separated them out from updates to the browser extension itself. Read more...

The latest version of the TLS internet security protocol has been approved

Gabriel Nunes — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 13:18:01 +0000

After four years of debates, including attempts from the financial sector to soften it, Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol version 1.3 has been finished and is ready to be implemented. Read more...

Chrome 68 will mark HTTP websites as “not secure”

Paul Hill — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 19:02:01 +0000

Google has announced that starting with Chrome 68, all HTTP websites will be clearly marked as "not secure". Google has incrementally been marking more and more pages as insecure since 2016. Read more...

More Chrome traffic is encrypted than ever before

Paul Hill — Sat, 21 Oct 2017 15:44:01 +0000

Google has released a transparency report about Chrome traffic and how much of it is encrypted. It reveals that while Chrome for Android has the least amount encrypted, it's also the fastest growing. Read more...

Let's Encrypt will introduce wildcard certificates in January 2018

Paul Hill — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 11:02:01 +0000

Let's Encrypt has announced that wildcards will be introduced from January 2018. The announcement was made this early because it needs to raise money in the summer fundraiser to pay for development. Read more...

Let's Encrypt issues 100 million certificates giving us a more secure web

Paul Hill — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 15:38:36 +0000

The automatic certificate authority, Let's Encrypt, has passed a huge milestone of issuing 100 million certificates. It said 58% of the internet is using HTTPS and that it's proud to have contributed. Read more...

YouPorn, Pornhub harden security by defaulting to HTTPS encryption

Gurkaran Singh — Sat, 01 Apr 2017 17:06:01 +0000

The porn sites have now defaulted to HTTPS encryption following the US Congress' vote to overturn the previous privacy rule that prohibited Internet Service Providers from selling users' information. Read more...

Firefox 55 won't send your location to sites unless they use HTTPS

Paul Hill — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 15:00:01 +0000

In Firefox 55, due to be released in August, websites will have to be using HTTPS to request geolocation data from a users' browser. Chrome implemented the feature in the first half of 2016. Read more...

Apple extends deadline for making HTTPS server connectivity mandatory in apps

Usama Jawad — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 07:54:01 +0000

In a statement, Apple has announced that it is extending the deadline for the enforcement of Air Transport Security (ATS) - that supports HTTPS server connectivity for data communication - in apps. Read more...

Let's Encrypt has now issued over 10 million certificates

Paul Hill — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 01:50:01 +0000

Let's Encrypt has passed yet another milestone in under five months since it launched. The project has now issued 10 million certificates in total, with about 5.3 million of them still unexpired. Read more...

Mozilla celebrates 10,000 days since web proposal was submitted

Paul Hill — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 06:26:01 +0000

Mozilla has launched a new Thunderclap campaign to spread awareness that the web was proposed 10,000 days ago. The company will recap the web's history on Twitter during the day of July 28th. Read more...

Let's Encrypt passes 5 million issued certificates

Paul Hill — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 04:06:01 +0000

The Let's Encrypt project reports that it has now issued over 5 million certificates. The Let's Encrypt project wants site owners to be able to deploy HTTPS more easily, for a secure internet. Read more...

Let's Encrypt issues over three million certificates

Paul Hill — Tue, 10 May 2016 14:52:01 +0000

Let's Encrypt, the project aimed at securing connections to websites, has hit the three million mark with regards to the number of issued certificates. It left its beta phase less than a month ago. Read more...

WordPress.com turns on free full HTTPS for all websites through the Let's Encrypt project

Steven Johns — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 08:32:01 +0000

WordPress.com, the paid side of WordPress, has started to utilize the Let's Encrypt project to enable HTTPS for all of the websites with custom domains that are hosted on the service. Read more...

After 10 years, reddit will finally be HTTPS-only

Jett Goldsmith — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 20:40:01 +0000

After working 9 months to update their code and webpages in preparation, reddit has finally made the leap to become HTTPS-only, and will begin encrypting all traffic on June 29th. Read more...

Netflix to deploy HTTPS across its service at a 'significant cost'

Jerry Grey — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 07:34:01 +0000

Netflix wants to prevent eavesdropping on its members by deploying HTTPS across its service over the next year, but the change will not be cheap with the costs said to be 'significant'. Read more...

Google is pushing sites that use HTTPS higher in its search results

Andy Weir — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 14:05:45 +0000

Google has confirmed that it has adjusted its search ranking algorithms to push sites that use HTTPS higher up in its search results - although, so far, the implementation of this has been limited. Read more...

Yahoo Mail finally joins Gmail and Outlook.com in encrypting all emails

John Callaham — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 17:11:20 +0000

Yahoo, keeping its promises, has announced this week that it is now finally encrypting all emails, joining Google's Gmail and Microsoft's Outlook.com which have provided such services for some time. Read more...

Microsoft sees all your HTTPS links in Skype, and you didn't know

Paul Ferson — Wed, 15 May 2013 06:53:59 +0000

Since Skype's takeover by Microsoft, it seems the Redmond-based giant has been able to cast an approving eye over HTTPS links that are sent. Read more...

Security certificate problems affect Bing.com

Ben Buffone — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:47:14 +0000

When navigating to the Bing web site through a secure connection, a security certificate error message greets you in most browsers. At present, certificate providers are mostly likely to blame. Read more...

After 6 months, Apple finally patches App Store vulnerability

Max Slater-Robins — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 12:19:13 +0000

Apple has plugged a gap in their App Store security, 6 months after a Google security researcher alerted them to the problem which could allow hackers access to sensitive information. Read more...

HTTPS Everywhere 3.0 protects users on-line

Alfonso Maruccia — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:33:30 +0000

The “encryption-enabler” browser add-on made by the EFF collective gets a new update, adding up many web sites to its protection list and promising a safer World Wide Web for everyone. Read more...

HTTPS Everywhere 2.0 warns about websites security holes

Alfonso Maruccia — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 02:30:12 +0000

The new release of the EFF-crafted Firefox security extension brings a very much welcomed additional feature, ie warning users when a website is affected by security holes. Read more...

Twitter rolls out improved HTTPS support

Mike Brown — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 23:33:20 +0000

Twitter today announced the introduction of improvements to its HTTPS access by allowing users to permanently access the site via HTTPS. In a post to their blog, the company detailed the changes that will allow... Read more...