After a number of scandals related to dodgy SSL certificates, Google decided in March 2017 to take measures against Symantec and its brands Thawte, GeoTrust and RapidSSL. Google’s initial proposal included many limitations, for example removing ‘trust’ in existing Symantec certificates from the Chrome browser, showing Symantec EV certificates as domain validation certificates without a company name and green address bar, and limiting certificate validity to 9 months. After long discussions on the Chrome mailing list, a new proposal defined revised, less disruptive measures. Still, Google states that starting 31 August 2017, Chrome may gradually begin mistrusting Symantec, GeoTrust, Thawte and RapidSSL branded certificates that were issued before 1 June 2016.

At freistilbox, we’ve been partnering with DigiCert for many years to provide our customers with owner-validated SSL certificates. The security of these certificates has never been in doubt.

However, our customers have been able to choose RapidSSL as a less cost-intensive alternative for domain-validated SSL certificates. Since the proposed changes in Chrome could cause some operational disruption for customers using RapidSSL certificates, we’re taking action to prevent any issues in advance.

We’re in the process of reissuing all valid RapidSSL certificates that we provided before June. Our web operations team coordinates the renewal process with each affected customer via individual support tickets. These certificate renewals are free of charge and will not interrupt website operation.

Providing secure and reliable SSL encryption on our managed hosting platform has always been a priority for us at freistilbox, and we’re continuing to do so with these proactive measures. If you too would like to work efficiently and sleep peacefully while we take care of running your Drupal and WordPress websites, check out our hosting plans and prices!