As of September 30, 2021 an older version of a SSL Certificate (A means to secure communication between you/your user to a website) has expired. Some older devices will not be able to go to a website using said older SSL Certificate.

It's not that simple and yes it can have an effect your business depending on your target customers/audience. 
For example, let's say your starting a delivery service. You want to target young adults, even ones with playing on PS3/ PS4 game consoles to be able to get a delivery in-between games. But wait your website got issued that older SSL  Certificate in anticipation of this project. Now those on PS3 and those with a PS4 that doesn't have the latest firmware update will not be able to load website as it's now insecure! 

Or let's say your building a product for a Government Agency, that due to unfortunate circumstances, are still using  Windows XP with SP3 (Service Pack 3). You will see the same issue, the website will not be able to load as it's now insecure! 

Now while those seem like small outlier situations, that's not the end of it. Your customers may simple have an out-of-date web browser or an older phone. Which present the above problem as well. So you may have realized that it sounds like a simple update should solve most problems, right? Well... almost.

While in theory a update to your SSL and an update notice to your customers would solve the majority of devices, not all businesses want to, or even can, tell there customers to simply "update" there device. Some businesses target  customers/audience may be ones who can't update there device. Such as a website that sells products to seniors or a Government website that helps those in a disadvantaged situation or simply the business cannot get move out of legacy devices for one reason or another. 

So, what should your business do? Confirm that your target customers/audience, in general, have or don't have update-to-date devices (A list is provided below). 

If they are in an update-to-date situation then the matter is as simple as keep your SSL Certificate updated. Provided that you keep in mind some with older devices may be locked out.

If they are not in an update-to-date situation then there are a couple options. First, if possible, would be to simply fade out devices that don't support the new SSL Certificate. Second, if its not possible to fade out older devices, then there is a type of SSL Certificate that allows both new and old devices to be able to access your website. That would be a good opportunity to encourage your customers to update to newer devices or web browser. 

If your business is looking to support both older and newer devices, let us know! When you get hosting from Rivers Edge Designs the included free SSL Certificate can be installed with the option of supporting both older and newer device. Of course we will use the latest SSL Certificates if your business only has need of supporting the latest devices.

A complete list with more technical details can be found here.

Need to support older devices? Or need to only support new devices? Check out our Managed Hosting which comes with free SSL Certificate of your choosing!