Many, if not almost all popular websites today use SSL certificates to help deliver content securely over HTTPS in modern browsers. You often see a lock in the address bar of modern browsers to help provide a quick visual confirmation that a website’s pages are being served to you securely.
One of the largest providers of SSL certificates, Let’s Encrypt, will be making changes to how older browser versions and legacy devices “see” its certificates. Let’s Encrypt has signed over 1.6 billion SSL certificates and as part of its ongoing focus on security, it will stop using an older root certificate (a way for devices and browsers to help understand trust) on September 30, 2021.
For the overwhelming majority of website users, it will be business as usual. Users with extremely old devices (such as iPhone 4) which no longer receive software updates to support the new root certificate may have issues browsing websites however these are not only statistically very few and far between but they are often vulnerable in general given that they haven’t been updated in years.
For our St Louis website design customers using modern devices and browser, you won’t see a difference or need to take any action. Your website will continue to run and deliver content over HTTPS just as it does now!
For more information and technical details, please visit the official DST Root CA X3 Expiration post on the Let’s Encrypt website.