MyPost is Officially Secure!
We are very excited and happy to announce that MyPost has been updated with certified encryption measures! It has long been known that when you go to a website, you type in the web address: http://www.thewebsite.com. If you were going to a website that accepted payments, such as Amazon.com or Ebay.com, you would enter through a secured connection. This secured connection, whether you typed in http:// or not, would take you to https:// and show a "Lock" symbol () on the address bar. This meant your connection was secure and that no hackers could interfere with the "connection" from your web browser to the website and back.
Several months ago, it was exposed that many government websites were not actually secure and lacked this symbol. Since then, these government websites have made efforts to make their websites more secure. Google has also been announcing that they want to ensure the Internet is a safer place for everyone, and while they have not fully enforced it upon web masters, they have announced their plans that secured websites, those with https will be rank higher and better than websites that are not secure.
Unfortunately, to secure websites, you will have to purchase a security certificate which adds some additional cost to your website and secures the connection, which will cost you about $15 a year. Fortunately, there is a company who felt that this is not fair, and is just another ploy to make money. Therefore, they decided to make it free, though it expires after 60 to 90 days and must be renewed. This company is called Let's Encrypt! which helps make websites and the Internet more secure without any additional costs.
On their website, they explain what Let's Encrypt is.
Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority (CA), run for the public’s benefit. Let’s Encrypt is a service provided by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).
The key principles behind Let’s Encrypt are:
- Free: Anyone who owns a domain name can use Let’s Encrypt to obtain a trusted certificate at zero cost.
- Automatic: Software running on a web server can interact with Let’s Encrypt to painlessly obtain a certificate, securely configure it for use, and automatically take care of renewal.
- Secure: Let’s Encrypt will serve as a platform for advancing TLS security best practices, both on the CA side and by helping site operators properly secure their servers.
- Transparent: All certificates issued or revoked will be publicly recorded and available for anyone to inspect.
- Open: The automatic issuance and renewal protocol will be published as an open standard that others can adopt.
- Cooperative: Much like the underlying Internet protocols themselves, Let’s Encrypt is a joint effort to benefit the community, beyond the control of any one organization.
For more information on https, check out this link: https://www.instantssl.com/ssl-certificate-products/https.html
MyPost has fully implemented this encryption certificate and will now display the "lock" symbol () on all of its pages and posts. This means that your connection to and from MyPost is much more secure and you can write with confidence knowing that no one can access your post, unless of course, you give someone access to view or edit your post. This also means that it really does not change anything for you and you can continue link to MyPost via http or https and you will be taken to the same exact post.
If your website is not already secure, and you are on Shared Hosting, please contact your web host with suggestions on upgrading all websites to a more secure server. If your web host does not plan to secure your website, consider switching to DreamHost, who offers it for free and automatically with a single click. If you are on your own VPS or Dedicated Server, check out this article on how to install Let's Encrypt: How to Install Let's Encrypt Free SSL Certificate On Your Website
