Chrome 68 will label all HTTP sites as 'not secure'

[Matrix]

Chrome is nudging people towards a more secure web

 

The big picture: Google argues that all websites should be protected with HTTPS, even if they don't handle sensitive communications. In today's privacy-conscious landscape, that's hard to argue with.

Google’s effort to steer Internet users towards a more secure web takes its next step on Tuesday with the launch of Chrome 68.

The latest version of Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as “not secure.” Up to this point, only a subset of HTTP pages was marked as “not secure” in the browser. The search giant intentionally made the transition a slow one in order to give developers plenty of time to move their sites over to a secure connection.

As of this past February, more than 68 percent of Chrome traffic on Android and Windows was protected (the figure climbs to more than 78 percent on Chrome OS and Mac). Furthermore, 81 of the top 100 sites on the web now use HTTPS by default.

 

While most would agree that HTTPS is a good thing, not everyone is convinced. This led security researcher Troy Hunt to theorize that those against the broad adoption of HTTPS are simply pushing back because they feel they have lost control and are being “forced” to move due to Chrome’s impending changes.

Hunt has also put together an informative blog post on the matter and published a 24-minute video detailing why static websites need HTTPS.

Developers looking to transition their sites to HTTPS are encouraged to check out Google’s set-up guides for more information.

source

 

[steven36]

Google launches Chrome 68 with doomsaying for unsecured websites

 

Here be dragons, repent all ye that pass

 

If people don't like it, expect HaTeMaiL

 

GOOGLE HAS RELEASED Chrome 68, the latest version of its number one rated web browser which brings with it some serious security extras.

 

As reported by INQ some time ago, Chrome 68 is to be the first iteration of the browser that warns users that any site without HTTPS encryption is not secure.

 

The move is part of Google's long-term goal to get the entire internet running with encryption, and (seemingly) Yahoo's ongoing determination to pretend that it's not happening.

 

With 81 of the top 100 sites on the web already encrypted, it's not something that most people will really notice, but for those who stray from the path, there'll be a more obvious, red-hued warning of the dragons therein.

 

This isn't a huge surprise - Google has been planning and preparing for this for months. However, some webmasters are still not convinced why HTTPS is so important.

 

Google already penalises non-secure sites in its search results, that's been true for some time, but if you have a closed audience, the need for high search rankings is less of a priority and in which case, the impetus goes away. Until there's an attack on the site, of course.

 

For Android and iOS users there's the Site Isolation feature designed to add belt and braces in the fight against the Spectre vulnerability comes to mobile after debuting in Chrome 67 desktop but it does impact on the performance of the browser - initial reports suggest as much as 13 per cent.

 

There's a fairly typical level of doomsaying amongst those who fear that the web will suddenly implode as people are left to face the confusing new messages abounding from sites that haven't taken up the call-to-arms yet, or those struggling to implement it causing a potential for downtime, but in reality it hasn't been a huge problem so far.

 

The proof will come, as ever, in a few days time when everyone is up-to-date and (hopefully) up to speed on the change.

 

Next month, Chrome 69 will remove the "secure" message from compliant sites in favour of going ape-shitaki on the non-secure ones instead.

 

Source

[luisam]

It's not clear for me if it WARNS that an HTTP site is unsecure but let's define an exception to use it, just like with some HTTPS sites or it simply bans entirely the access to an HTTP site, which migh be rather annoying.

[csmdew]

What it really does, is screw up the color on webpages, as they are displayed.

[duangkamol]

It will be more safe to use secure websites on chrome 68.I am going to update my chrome.