What does certificate error mean

Internet Explorer found a problem with a certificate that doesn't match any other errors. It could be because a certificate has been damaged, tampered with, written in an unknown format, or is unreadable.

You shouldn't trust the identity of the site if a certificate has this error. A website's certificate provides identification of the web server. If the certificate has an error, it might indicate that your connection has been intercepted or that the web server is misrepresenting its identity. If you're absolutely positive of the website's identity, you know that your connection hasn't been compromised, and you understand the risks, you can choose to go to the website.

However, we recommend that you don't ignore a certificate warning. While this isn't recommended, you can select Continue to this website not recommended on the certificate error warning page to go to the website. If you ignore the warning page and go to a site that's presented a certificate containing an error, Internet Explorer will remember the certificate while you have your browser open.

You can return to the site without receiving another warning for that certificate until Internet Explorer is restarted. No, you can't turn off certificate checking in Internet Explorer.

If you receive certificate errors, it means the website you're visiting is having certificate problems and it doesn't indicate a problem with Internet Explorer.

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Error message What it means This website's security certificate has been revoked You shouldn't trust this website. This website's address doesn't match the address in the security certificate A website is using a certificate that was issued to a different web address.

This website's security certificate is out of date The current date is either before or after the time period during which the certificate is valid. This website's security certificate isn't from a trusted source The certificate has been issued by a certification authority that isn't recognized by Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer has found a problem with this website's security certificate Internet Explorer found a problem with a certificate that doesn't match any other errors.

There is a problem with this website's security certificate. The security certificate presented by this website was not issued by a trusted certificate authority. Security certificate problems may indicate an attempt to fool you or intercept data you send to the server.

We recommend that you close this webpage and do not continue to this Web site. To resolve this issue, an organization that hosts the secure Web site can purchase a certificate for each Web server from a third-party provider. Or, the organization can install a Microsoft Enterprise certification authority in the Active Directory forest. Then, the organization can use this certification authority to generate a certificate for each Web server. Note Users of client computers that do not belong to the organization's Active Directory forest can visit the certification authority Web site to download the certificate.

To do this, follow these steps:. In Windows Internet Explorer, click Continue to this website not recommended. A red Address Bar and a certificate warning appear. Click View Certificates , and then click Install Certificate. On the warning message that appears, click Yes to install the certificate.

In Windows Vista, the same issue occurs with self-signed certificates. However, the option to install certificates is not available unless you run Windows Internet Explorer with administrator rights.

To do this, right-click the Internet Explorer icon, and then select Run as Administrator. A press release from in which Sony Entertainment announced it had been hacked, highlighted the vulnerability that businesses could face. Before and since, certificates and secure browsing have become extremely important to users that do business on the Web.

A certificate error could mean that there was a harmless mistake authenticating a Web URL, or it could signal something potentially hazardous to you or your computer. Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, certificates are issued to websites to verify their identities and provide a level of security to their users.

SSL encrypts transmissions that take place across the Internet. This makes it difficult for intrusions to occur and generally provides a secure connection to things like Voice over Internet Protocol, Web browsers and email.

Errors can occur when some portion of the URL in the browser bar doesn't match the certificate. A warning will display letting you know the domain you're visiting is not the domain that's registered as secure. In some cases, this simply means a redirect took you to a site whose certificate is valid but whose name doesn't match the exact name registered, such as www. In other cases, like when the error tells you the certificate isn't from a trusted source or has been revoked, it may signal that a malicious party is using a fraudulent certificate.

Certificate errors occur for a reason, so be cautious about going to sites where they occur.