Google announces final plan against Symantec

Google announced its final plan for the Chrome browser to distrust Symantec-branded certificates last week. This decision will affect existing certificates starting April 2018.

If you use Symantec certificates (or any of its brands – RapidSSL, Thawte, or GeoTrust) you are going to need to replace your certificates at some point.

At Openprovider, we want to make this replacement process as clear as possible to you as a customer. Below, you can find whether this affects you and why this is important. We have also created a detailed roadmap with dates for you to consult.

Does Google ‘s plan affect you?

If you are a current user of Symantec certificates or plan to purchase one in 2017, this could affect you.

Why it is important?

About 60% of internet users use the Chrome browser. A website with a distrusted certificate risks losing a large portion of its audience. Anyone trying a site with such a certificate will see a “Not Secure” warning in the address bar. So, in this case, you lose risking a lot of possible visitors and customers.

Important dates in Google’s plan

Below you can find a roadmap of important dates in Google ‘s final plan to distrust Symantec certificates:

Action plan

So, in summary: you do not have to perform any actions until Symantec has set up their Managed Partner Infrastructure. They have projected this to take place on 1 Dec, 2017.

NOTE: We will also update all of our affected customers by email, notifying them when they need to undertake action.