Google Chrome to Join Apple’s Safari in One Year SSL Certificate Validity
As of the 1st September 2020, two of the worlds most popular web browsers will no longer support SSL Certificates that are valid for more than 1 year. Both Apple and Google have been pushing for one year validity for some time and it has recently been announced that they will only be supporting these from the 1st September 2020.
This might sound like a big move, but it doesn’t actually change anything because it was already happening. So, what does this actually mean to you as a website owner?
Why Is This Happening?
The idea behind the move to one year validity is that certificates with shorter lifespans have to be issued more frequently, to make them more secure. The theory is that by requiring SSL certificates to be renewed after a shorter period – we will see the following benefits: –
- When any security updates to certificates are made, they roll out into the world wide web more quickly.
- It also theoretically makes websites more secure by ensuring that new keys are being generated regularly.
Shorter lifecycles for SSL’s mean if there is a problem with the SSL protocol (which does occasionally happen) it can be patched and fixed across the web in a much quicker turnaround.
What Does This Mean for You the Business Owner?
Safari is one of the internet’s two leading web browsers. W3Counter lists Safari’s browser market share at 17.7% as of January 2020. This falls behind only Google Chrome (58.2%) and ahead of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Edge (7.1%). So, as you can imagine, you want to ensure that your website — and your customers’ websites — are trusted by Safari.
If you have a managed SSL service with iOnline it means the frequency of the issued SSLs is now going to double. iOnline had always provisioned SSL Certificates for a period of 2 years at a time but this will now be increased to every 12 months.
Moving forward for these SSL Certificates to be trusted by Safari and Chrome, they will need to be re-issued every 12 months vs every 24 months.
What’s Next?
It was only a matter of time before we’d see this type of push for one-year certificate validity by one of the browsers. Once one browser makes the move, it means that all of the SSL providers will change their certificates from two years to one year regardless of what the other browsers do.
If you have any more questions, on the topic, please drop us a line at hello@ionline.com.au or give us a call on 1800 466 546
