Digital Certificate Does Not Work. Causes, Solutions

Errors that can occur with the Digital Certificate of a website, brings with it numerous problems for both the visitor and the company that owns the site. Let's see what happens when The Digital Certificate does not work, its causes and consequences.

The important thing about all this is that it does not really affect the user experience. If this were to happen, visits to the website would automatically be reduced, and therefore, sales.

But first let's see what it is a Digital Certificate and why it is so important.

What Is A Digital Certificate?

The Digital Certificate It is the digital identity of a natural or legal person, which allows transactions on the Internet with legal validity.

the digital certificate It allows the sending and signing of documents legally over the Internet, as well as the issuing of electronic invoices, the possibility of carrying out banking transactions and the filing of certain declarations, such as tax returns.

A lot of information is stored within the digital certificate, including the holder's personal data, service renewal period, public key, serial number, name and digital signature of the Certification Authority responsible for issuing the certificate.

Documents digitally signed with a digital certificate are encrypted at the time of sending, meaning the information is encoded in multiple codes, increasing the security of the data when transferred over the Internet.

In certain cases, public agencies may require the digital certificate for transactions. The issuance of electronic invoices is an example of a requirement.

There are 4 versions of digital certificates:

• e-CPF It is the electronic identity indicated for natural persons.
• e-CNP J It is aimed at legal entities.
• NF-e issues electronic invoices.
• SSL certificate, which uses cryptography to protect data and information on a website from third parties, being the most recommended for e-commerce.

What is SSL?

SSL are the acronyms of “Secure Socket Layer”It is an encryption protocol that provides secure communication over computer networks.

It is an encrypted protocol that provides security to the user in communication when accessing the virtual environment, such as email (SMTP) and page navigation, in addition to other means of data transfer.

SSL certificates ensure user security when accessing a website. In other words, the data sent is encrypted, such as bank details, names or even addresses, so that it is impossible for other people to misuse them.

Despite being better known, SSL has a successor, Transport Layer Security (TLS). Both are widely used on websites around the world. This is done to encrypt information between the server and the Web navigator.

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SSL Accelerator

Since we are talking about the concept of SSL, it is important to relate it to the SSL accelerator. Using the presented protocol can be very server intensive, and corporations have realized this over the years.

To avoid problems, they now have the option to direct more resources to the user while investing in security. This makes the visitor experience even better and promotes greater competitiveness for companies and their services.

Simply put, the accelerator acts as hardware attached to the server. As data moves, it will be responsible for encrypting and decrypting it. Therefore, all the efforts that the server needs to put in can be done without it being consumed.

Many people don't know this, but software-based solutions also have this feature. In such cases, the accelerator is located in a virtual interface. It captures traffic even before it reaches the site.

When running configuration routines, only those that do not impact your productivity will be directed to the server.

Finally, it is worth considering backing up data while using the accelerator. This increases the strategies that keep websites reliable and secure. In addition, it minimizes the chances of data loss.

The Website's Digital Certificate Does Not Work

The website certification error It presents a different screen for each browser, but always reporting the lack of a digital certificate, leaving the user confused, irritated and insecure.

One of the consequences of this is the increase in the dropout rate.

First of all, some users may not know what a digital certificate is. Others may not understand what a security exception is. In order for the user to access the home page of the website they want to browse, they must click on the options that allow them to continue with the process.

In the case of an online business, such as a e-commerce, failure means loss of access, income and credibility.

How to fix website certification error?

The solution is simple. Data from a website travels through HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is used in the URLs of many websites, being the means by which information leaves a server and reaches the user's browser.

Therefore, it is used in communication between systems.

On websites that use HTTP, when the user completes a registration form and sends his or her data to the destination server via the Internet, there is no guarantee that this information has not been intercepted and read by a third party (hacker).

Other sites, in turn, are configured with a similar but more secure protocol, HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure), ensuring that in the communication between the user's browser and the destination server, the data is not intercepted by a hacker, as it will be encrypted.

This is only possible through the use of an SSL digital certificate (Secure Socket Layer)Secure Sockets Layer, in English.

Sites that are configured with HTTPS but do not have a digital certificate solution installed on the server will present the user with an unwanted screen that may prevent them from accessing the home page.

In simple terms, what this screen is saying is, “Do you want to trust a site that doesn’t prove your identity?” or “Do you really want to browse and provide information to an unsafe site?”

It is a fact that people value their security, whether they are browsing the Internet, shopping online or when they need to provide sensitive data, such as their bank card or personal identification data.

You have already noticed that the website certification error problem can greatly affect your site, but, as already mentioned, the solution is simple: you just need to buy an SSL certificate and configure it on your server.

If you already have a certificate, but the problem still persists, we need to focus on its configuration. We will discuss below a simple configuration that could solve all this.

How to configure SSL on your site?

Often, the situation is due to a misalignment of the certificate's date and time relative to your computer. In other words, the web server's SSL certificate expiration date may be in trouble.

In addition, there may be a problem with the recognition of the validity of a renewed certificate. In any case, by correcting this information, it is likely that the documentation will be correctly accessed.

The following step by step can be done in Windows 7, 8 or 10. It also works in Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox browsers. To follow it:

1. Start setting up SSL in WordPress from the admin panel

The first step to setting up SSL in WordPress is to force the admin panel to run the secure version. This can be easily set up by inserting a line of code in the <head> file. wpconfig.php. This file is located in the root of your WordPress installation.

• Log in to your WordPress hosting server and download the file in question, or edit it using your hosting file manager.
• Open the file wp-config.php with your favorite code editor and find the snippet “That’s it, stop editing”.
• On this line, enter the following code:

define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true)

• Save the file and replace it on the hosting server.
• By doing this, go to your login page. WordpressYou may notice that the page has been redirected to the secure version, which can be recognized by a padlock in the navigation bar.
• Use your username and password to access the admin area. Please note that the padlock will appear on every page of the admin panel.

2. Enable HTTPS on a single page

Now that we have SSL configured in the admin panel, it's time to start configuring the part of your website that is visible to visitors.

Since there may be errors, we suggest temporarily enabling SSL on a single page, so you can review it and see if the change can be made site-wide.

There are several plugins that redirect the entire website to SSL. However, we don't want this at the moment, because we need to make sure that the site's content is error-free.

These errors are usually related to loading page elements via an HTTP URL. So even if the page loads securely, but loads images, CSS, or scripts that do not use HTTPS in their source code, an alert will be displayed to the user.

Depending on the content of the page, loading may even be blocked by the browser, which would certainly make a very negative impression on your visitors.

So get a plugin where you can work on a single URL and still be able to run the checks.

3. Update WordPress Base URL to Contain HTTPS

Among the WordPress settings, one of them records the WordPress installation location and the other one records the base URL of the site. The WordPress system uses this information to form several of the URLs that will be loaded on the pages of your website.

Therefore, they are essential to configure SSL in WordPress and must be updated, as we will see below.

• In the WordPress admin panel, go to “Configuration", then "General admission” and updates the fields “WordPress Address (URL)"And"Website address (URL)” by inserting https at the beginning of the URL.
• Save the page after the change. You will be redirected to the login page.
• Log in and access the admin panel again. At this point, if you click on the “Visit website” link within the panel, you will be directed to the HTTPS version of the homepage.

If after this change you can't log back into WordPress, edit the file wpconfig.php inserting the following constants (Replace mysite.com with your website address).

define('WP_HOME','https://mysite.com')

define('WP_SITEURL','https://mysite.com')

4. Update image URLs, CSS and scripts in the database

Chances are your site has a lot of images and scripts loaded insecurely since your site did not have the HTTPS URL as default in the general WordPress settings.

What we need to do then is scan the database for these URLs, replacing the ones that fall under this condition. More experienced users will be able to perform these replacements directly in the database.

However, to make this job easier, you can use search and replace tools in databases.

5. Scan the site for mixed content

At this point, your website should be accessible both from the old address, using HTTP, and from the new one, using HTTPS. Now it's time to scan your site for insecurely loaded elements and fix them.

• To do this, open your browser's developer tools screen. In Google Chrome, is available in the menu (three dots), under More tools -> Developer tools.
• Browse the HTTPS version of your website with the development screen open. If there are any errors, they will be indicated in the right corner of the development screen. Clicking on the error number will display the list of issues in the database.
• These loading errors are called “mixed content.” They indicate that some elements are loaded using an encrypted URL (HTTP).

In many cases, these URLs are inserted directly into the source code of the template used by WordPress. But it is also possible to encounter this scenario when we use external plugins or when we insert external content via iframe, such as a video, for example.

You must find the source of these URLs and correct them manually.

6. Set up a redirect from HTTP to HTTPS

As a final step in setting up SSL in WordPress, you need to perform a server redirect so that all visitors access only the secure (HTTPS) version of your website.

This redirect is very simple to do, but requires attention. If your hosting uses an Apache type server, insert the code below into the file .htaccess which is present in the root of WordPress. If there is no file .htaccess, create a blank one.

# Redirect for HTTPS

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond% {HTTPS} off

RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

If you are using an NGINX type server, the code will be a little different:

server {

listen 80;

server_name mysite.com www.mysite.com;

return 301 https://mysite.com$request_uri;

}

In the example above, remember to replace the fragment of mysite.com with your domain. If you have questions about which server your WordPress uses, contact your hosting support. They will likely be able to help you.

7. Delete the plugin you used

After changing the default WordPress URL, you need to delete the plugin you used in step 2. It will no longer be needed since we have made all the settings manually.

To remove the plugin, in the admin panel, go to the Plugins -> Installed Plugins section, and deactivate the plugin. Then click “Delete” and confirms the removal of the plugin.

Benefits of Using SSL on Your Website

By understanding more about the certification error and knowing the solutions for it, it is interesting to discover the benefits of using an SSL that works at its full potential. Let us name a few:

• Greater security: Ensure that transmitted information cannot be read or intercepted by a hacker.
• Increased credibility: Gain credibility with users, who will see the company as serious, understanding that it cares about offering users security and cutting-edge technology.
• Avoid the certification mistake: By using SSL, you automatically eliminate this unwanted error.
• Increased reliability: With an SSL certification seal on your website, users will feel more comfortable providing their personal data.

Disadvantages of not using SSL on your Website

On the contrary, when a website does not have a certificate installed on the server, the disadvantages are noticeable:

• Loss of numerous accesses: Users will probably stop accessing your website.
• Low sales conversions: Many sales will not be completed due to lack of reliability.
• Loss of credibility: Users will not trust a business that they perceive as unsafe.

Do you understand why it is essential to have a digital certificate on your website?

Inform Google about URL changes

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If you've owned the site for some time, chances are you've Google and other search engines have indexed several of your URLs. Since your website's default URL has changed when you implemented SSL, you must inform Google of this change.

This step is important to ensure that your pages' position in search results does not change. Sites that have a lot of organic traffic should pay special attention to this.