Written by . . .

Lawri Williamson, Communications & Brand Manager

Nugget Williamson

If we’re to believe Hollywood, hackers are really good guyswho haven’t gotten a fair shake. . . .

. . . brooding, misunderstood saviors of the universe . . .

. . . or all-American kids who just want good grades without the hassle

of studying.

Unfortunately, it’s a little more serious than that.

High-profile data breaches are becoming increasingly common

According to IBM, the average consolidated cost of a data breach is now $3.8 million.

So, if hackers are the bad guys ― the ones creating the nightmares . . .

. . . who are the good guys ― the ones working to protect us?

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is the U.S. government organization that sets the standards for Internet security.

In 2014, the NIST advised government entities to upgrade to the latest

approved securityprotocol . . .

(This latest version of TLS was released in August 2008, just in time for

Madonna’s 50th.

Coincidence?

Or well-timed gift from a super-fan/developer?)

But the Internet doesn’t have a big “master switch,” so every site owner has to take care of the upgrade for themselves.

And, since site owners are people, some are more quick to act on information like this than others.

Companies that deal with a lot

of sensitive information have been among the first to make the switch.

If you haven’t upgraded your browser, you’re going to have trouble accessing those sites.

Pretend this is you:

If you’re still using IE6, and you want to update your Facebook status . . .

Instead of ending up here when you go to Facebook: You’ll end up here:

And you’ll look like this:

To Avoid This Problem:

Check to see what your current browser supports by going to How’s My SSL1

To Avoid This Problem:

If your browser doesn’t support at least TLS 1.0, you’ll need to upgrade your browser, or change to one that does

2

If You’re the Site Owner:

Go to the CASC SSL Configuration Checker.

Your site will receive a letter grade indicating that it supports TLS 1.2 (that’s an A), only supports SSL 2 (that’s a big F), or falls somewhere in the middle.

Review

Hackers = bad NIST = good NIST says to upgrade to TLS

with AES 256-bit encryption Do what NIST says

Review

For additional information, see the full blog post on this topic at AppointmentPlus.com

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