PipesMagazine.com Now Has SSL (https://)

[admin]

The last step for getting PipesMagazine.com up with the times has been completed.

We now have SSL (https://).

It makes the site more secure.

What this is really for is when a website requires a login, so your personal info can't be stolen.

The way that is done is that a hacker clones a site, and then you enter your info on the fake site, and they have it. They usually lead you to the fake site with an email link. (That's called phishing.)

With SSL, that is not possible unless a user ignores all the warnings and enters their info anyway. (It still goes back to potential user error / stupidity.) There's other ways as well. You could be on the real site, but it is hacked, and they are just siphoning off the info.

Google (Chrome browser) decided that all sites with any type of login should be forced to use https. If you don't then the browser will give a warning that the site isn't secure. They also threatened to negatively effect your Google rankings if you didn't switch to https. Other browsers soon followed suit.

This is really old news from a few years ago.

In PipesMagazine's case it's mostly stupid as you are not entering credit card numbers, or any other sensitive info except for your password.

Maybe your password could get stolen, and then if they could find your username / password combo on another site, they might get in. That is highly unlikely though.

That's not the reason I held off though.

We have 10-years of content hosted on http.

I was afraid of breaking things, and taking the site down.

Hence getting up at 3:00 am, and finishing at 4:30 am.

A bunch of things broke, then got fixed with no one noticing.

We're still missing some left sidebar items on the WordPress pages, but we'll hopefully get them back before most people are awake. I might need a nap in between though.

Anyway, cheers to having SSL on PipesMagazine.com!

 

[mikethompson]

Thanks Kevin for all the work you put in!

 

[jaytex1969]

Dang. There goes my free supply of passwords. Now I have to go back to 1234....

 

[captainsousie]

Awesome to hear! Thanks for doing this!

 

[smittyd]

Thank you sir!

 

[piffyr]

Huzzah! Many thanks to all involved. It's a welcome change.

Maybe your password could get stolen, and then if they could find your username / password combo on another site, they might get in. That is highly unlikely though.

Not unlikely at all. In fact, this is the most common manner in which online accounts are hijacked. As an example, the recent Disney+ "hack" that made the news for affecting thousands of members used this method. The majority of people use the same username/password combo on multiple sites. Once the bad guys crack one, they've essentially cracked them all.

 

[Bowie]

Good change. Your hard work and time keeping this A+ site running smoothly is greatly appreciated by many.

 

[Chasing Embers]

That explains why all I got was a blank screen then.

 

[Elric]

Well done! And, well implemented!

 

[mso489]

Like bars on the windows; we're in the big city now. This is so important, sadly. The days of bright-eyed idealism about the web are now in the faded past. The crooks are all computer literate.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Thanks for your efforts and excellent work!

 

[shanez]

Now I have to go back to 1234....

That's the same password I have on my luggage!

 

[olkofri]

Does this mean we can now follow ship captains without them noticing? nana

 

[admin]

That explains why all I got was a blank screen then.

We were down for 15-20 mins, unrelated to the SSL switchover. I was working on something else.

 

[kcghost]

We appreciate the effort.

 

[mau1]

Thank you, Sir!

 

[Frozenoak]

Thanks for all the fish hard work.

Like bars on the windows; we're in the big city now. This is so important, sadly. The days of bright-eyed idealism about the web are now in the faded past. The crooks are all computer literate.

I suppose razorwire on the freeway signs is next.