Attention: Symantec Customers, You are Running Out of Time

Symantec, GeoTrust, Thawte and RapidSSL certificates need to be re-issued

If your website has a Symantec CA Brand-issued SSL/TLS certificate (meaning Symantec, GeoTrust, Thawte and RapidSSL), you may have been reminded by Symantec and your certificate provider that you need to reissue your certificate within a specific time-frame. If you haven’t received these emails or haven’t seen them (or even if you just got busy and forgot) don’t worry. We’ve got it covered for you.

Google Chrome, which is the most used web browser in the United States, is going to start distrusting Symantec-issued certificates with the launch of Chrome 66 (April 17, 2018). Comodo certificates will not be affected.

Now, before you press the panic button, calm down as not everyone needs to reissue, and there’s still some time left even if you need to.  But you should probably hurry.

Anyway, if you’re wondering whether you need to reissue your cert or not. We can help clear that up.

Do I need to reissue my Symantec-issued SSL certificate?

Note: Keep in mind that GeoTrust, Thawte, and RapidSSL are Symantec’s subsidiary brands. Therefore, certs issued by these CAs are considered “Symantec-issued.”

• If the SSL certificate was issued before June 1, 2016, you have until April 17, 2018.
• If the SSL certificate was issued after June 1, 2016, you have until September 13, 2018.
• If the SSL certificate was issued after December 1, 2017, there is need to reissue.

Note that these dates are estimates and are subject to the whims of Google. And again, we would like to reiterate that this has no effect on Comodo’s certificates.

This is How Google Chrome will Warn your Site Visitors:

Just to make things clear, we didn’t time-travel into the future to see this message and take a screenshot. That would be a horrible use of a time machine. No, I’m using Google Chrome Canary, the developer version of Chrome that allows Google to test its newest features.

Here’s what Google will show if you don’t reissue in time:

This doesn’t look good, does it? So, if you’re a Symantec customer, you better get a move on.