Safari browser at times on your Mac, iPhone or iPad warns when the site you are browsing is insecure. Usually, the warning image is displayed on the address bar. However, it is not everyone who understands this warning. This has raised a question of whether you should or should not visit a site that Safari has deemed insecure.
Meaning of “Not Secure” Warning
Unlike the other browsers, Safari brands all the unencrypted sites as insecure. This is because all links to sites that serve over HTTP are unencrypted. Websites can make use of HTTP and HTTPS, the insecure and secure connections respectively. In some instances, Safari brands some of the HTTPS sites as insecure. This, however, implies that at some technical level, HTTPS has been misconfigured.
When a website is branded as insecure, it implies that that the site is not encrypted. Rather, a connection to a specific site over HTTPS is always encoded. This implies that the connection is secure. However, connecting to sites that serve over HTTP is always insecure because these sites are never encrypted.
How Security Messages are labeled on Safari
By default, Safari browser users are always notified about the security status of a site that they visit. When safari needs to show the user that a site visited is secure a lock image appears on the browser’s search panel. This is especially when the site uses HTTPS connection. In this case, the browser does not warn the user against visiting the site.
How to check if a Site is Secure
With the use of Safari, it is easy to know if you can safely visit a site or not. The security status of your connection to a specific site is displayed on the browser’s search bar. The existence of a lock image on the search bar implies that the site you are visiting is encrypted.
Clicking on this image notifies the user about the encryption status of the site and that the site has provided an encryption digital certificate.
How to Check If a Site Is Insecure
If you follow a certain site on the Safari browser and the browser warns you that the site is not secure it means that your information is prone to intervention by unwanted parties. The connection to such a site is not private; Safari identifies the connection and warns you.
Why HTTPS Sites are more Secure
Digital encryption certificates are the standard way of websites proving to Safari that they are secure. All such sites run over HTTPS. This shows that these sites are secure and safe to visit. Moreover, other major browsers such as Firefox and Chrome have been coded in a way that they identify the insecure sites and warn the users before visiting them.
It is not advisable to send or input sensitive information on sites that have been labeled as insecure on any browser. Information such as bank details or personal data on such sites can easily leak to the wrong people.
