Secure Websites Next Step

Just when you thought the web design requirements were going to be stable for the near future, Google throws a breaking knuckleball concerning secure or https:// websites.

From an email 4specs received from Google:

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Starting October 2017, Chrome (version 62) will show a "NOT SECURE" warning when users enter text in a form on an HTTP page, and for all HTTP pages in Incognito mode.

The following URLs on your site include text input fields (such as < input type="text" > or < input type="email" >) that will trigger the new Chrome warning. Review these examples to see where these warnings will appear, so that you can take action to help protect users' data. This list is not exhaustive.

[While the email listed just the 4specs home page, every 4specs page will be affected due to the search boxes.]

The new warning is part of a long term plan to mark all pages served over HTTP as “not secure”.

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This is my opinion on secure websites:

Secure warnings - Intended to scare you into using secure sites.
Clearly any credit card purchase or providing personal information needs to served on a secure page.
Few specified-product websites have online purchasing requiring credit cards or personal information including email addresses.
I have not seen any discussion in the technical website forums about problems with non-secure websites. The major security problems and hacks appear to be on WordPress and other content management system sites not updated to the latest version.
A secure site does not pass a referrer - and thus you cannot determine where the visitor came from. Perhaps this is behind the Google change as you cannot determine where your visitor came from without Google's assistance as an AdWords advertiser. Google knows the referrer through its analytics javascript that provides the referrer where secure page does not in your logs.
Tip on knowing where referrals come from - add a query to your listing so you can see what they have done. More on this in a future newsletter.

I plan to move all internal 4specs searches and forms to pages with a description why Chrome is providing a security warning. The next step will be to move these pages to a secure server on 4specs.

Feedback, comments and suggestions always appreciated.

Colin

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Colin Gilboy
Publisher - 4specs
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