What Happens When Your SSL Certificate Expires?

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer which acts as a channel between Server and Browser and encrypts the transmission of data between the two. A valid SSL certificate is the first line of defense for your website. It acts as a medium that authenticates the website, a user is viewing, is legitimate and is not fake.

HTTPS is changed to HTTP which is not a secured channel. Intangible benefits of having SSL like user’s trust are also lost when the SSL certificate expires.

Consequences of Expired SSL:

Unlike the other online security services which get renewed automatically until specifically canceled, SSL Certificates have a specific expiry date and do not get renewed automatically.

This means the SSL Certificate must be replaced every 1 year.

When you visit any website, the browser checks for the authenticity of the SSL Certificate and verifies the same. If the certificate expires, the browser shows the following warning:

Once an SSL certificate gets expired, there is several consequences for both website owner and website user.

Website owner:

• As the site becomes unsecure, it reduces the trust between the website and its user.
• Decrease in sales & revenue.
• Bad reputation in the market seriously mars the “Brand” besides the business at risk.

Website user:

• Warning error messages showed by a browser on visiting the website.
• Personal information becomes unsecured and risks of man-in-middle (MITM) attacks increase.
• Increase in the chances of fraud and identity theft.

Apart from this, there can be several other consequences also which might include:

• A drop in website traffic:

Users who encounter notifications such as ‘this site’s security certificate has expired’ may find the resource is unsecure and therefore will not interact with the website or share their personal or sensitive information to that website.

• A drop in sales:

Because the site displays security warnings users may find the resource unsecured and will not make any purchases even though they have purchased previously from the same website.

• A drop-in site ranking:

if your SSL Certificate gets expired or your website is not secured, the ranking of your site will gradually fall in the search results. The reason being, the search bots take into consideration many factors such as visitor behavior, website traffic, etc.

Take a step forward towards a secured and stable future altogether.

Google SSL Certificate Requirements: How It Will Affect Your Website?

If you do not have an SSL Certificate, Google will flag your website. Today online security has become a necessity as we turn to the internet for everything.

Undoubtedly, Google is coming up with all possible ways to make us feel secure on the internet. Therefore, Google has made it mandatory to have an SSL certificate with all websites to enhance the online security and user’s experience as a whole.

How a browser displays expired SSL Certificate:

How to keep track of your SSL certificate expiration date?

Now the question arises, how can you avoid waking up the next morning and see your website showing SSL Security Warning on your website?

• You can check its expiration date directly from your browser. All you must do is simply click the padlock next to the URL, go to the certificate and check its expiration date in the General Tab.
• Also, you can set a reminder about the SSL certificate renewal or ask your CA (Certificate Authority) to send an SSL Certificate renewal reminder via email server notifications in advance.
• Another way to find the date of your SSL Certificate expiration is by log into your SSL Account and simply check the ‘Next Due Date’.

SSL Certificate Lifecycle Management:

SSL Certificate Lifecycle Management describes a complete system to manage all digital certificates throughout the complete lifecycle, right from acquisition till the expiration.

SSL certificate lifecycle includes the following processes:

• Generation of keys – both public and private keys and CSR (Certificate Signing Request) using up to date encryption algorithm.
• Enrollment
• Certificate installation
• Certificate renewal
• Certificate revocation

In the absence of Certificate Lifecycle Management, certificates can lost in system, expire and cause unforeseen disruption. Since these certificates are base for network security and play an important role in internal level trust, why should not we manage them effectively?

With the help of certificate lifecycle management, administrators can monitor their systems & digital certificates continuously with the ability to keep a track of top expirations and renewals in order to avoid any disruption in services.

With so many reminders, there are no excuses left to miss the expiry date and compromise with your website’s security and user experiences.

Protect your website and visitors:

Today, the websites become prime targets of cyberattacks. Therefore, it is important to ensure website security without any delay or gap in between to eliminate risk and chances of data lost, whilst encouraging website visitors to react appropriately to potential vulnerabilities and continue to build their trust & brand of the business.

If you allow your SSL Certificate to expire, it becomes invalid, and your website will no longer be able to have secured connection/transactions between the website and the users. The CA (Certificate Authority) will prompt you to renew the SSL Certificate beforehand before the expiration date.

We do realize that SSL certificates are more important, and we need to ensure that our website’s SSL is a valid one. SSL Certificate expiration will allow online hackers to seek to sensitive data available online. But how do we get one is still a mystery. Certificate authorities like DigiCert are the ones that provide SSL certificates. JNR management is an elite platinum partner with DigiCert and provides the best-in-class service for buying SSL certificates.

Note: A certificate can only be renewed up to 120 days before the expiration date and 30 days after the expiration date. You can always apply for the renewal credit 60 days before expiration or 30 days after the expiration of your SSL Certificate.