Forum

Night Watch

Nowadays you need to understand a lot of things if you are to have a chance of knowing what is going on! This applies as much to computing as to everything else... has a good example of this. I use it because it is the most inherently secure of the general purpose browsers - its design team always opt for the most secure default option. A little while ago this was demonstrated when users were unable to connect to some bank sites. The reason turned out to be that a crypto key certificate had been revoked. The web uses an encryption technique called a 'public key certificate' to let communicating entities prove who they are, and like all crypto, if a key is compromised it should be revoked, and people should not use it any more. This data is held in a Key Revocation List, which browsers ought to automatically check before accepting a certificate. did, and prevented access to sites using the revoked key as a result. Safari, Chrome and Firefox didn't, and allowed compromised access. And there was an initial outcry that must be broken because people couldn't access their banks.... https://news.netcraft.com/archives/2013/05/13/how-certificate-revocation-doesnt-work-in-practice.html

5 years ago by DodgyGeezer