security certificates?

Question

when i click on my email and more a gray box pops out it reads security certificate has expired or is not yet valid what does that mean thankyou darlene

Answer 1

a secure website uses a security certificate to establish the website's identity. The security certificate contains a security code that is hard to break and is used to make sure that the connection between you and the website is secure. The security certificates must be signed by a trusted authority who sets an expiration date. After this date, the certificate is no longer valid. The expried certificate will still make the connection secure but you are not sure of the website's identity. The website is probably in the process of getting their certificate renewed. The best thing to do is to accept the certificate temporarily until the website renews its certificate.

Answer 2

You have an old email security certificate installed, which is no longer valid. Security certificates are used to digitally sign and/or encrypt email. You can get a new email security certificate through COMODO (link shown below). The nice thing is the the certificate from Comodo is FREE! You need to go to that website, fill out a short form, and follow the instructions. I know that their service only works with Internet Explorer to get the intial certificate.

If you don't want to send digitally signed email , or encrypt your email to others, you should simply remove the security certificate from you email client. The procedures for this will vary depending on your email client.

Answer 3

There are security companies which provide certificates to their clients as proof of authenticity. For example, Citibank gets a certificate from Verisign. So, when you visit Citibank's website, you will see the Verisign certificate stating the website does indeed belong to Citibank - think of it as an electronic notary. The same goes for Google, Yahoo! or MSN. The certificates are only good for a certain period of time, after which they have to be renewed. In your case, your e-mail service provider's certificate has expired and your browser is warning you that since the certificate has expired the site might not be authentic. Most likely, someone at the company failed to renewed their certificate on time. Security certificates are one of many ways to steer net users away from malicious websites - like phish scams.