Technique. Will Your Old Smartphones Really Be Deprived Of The Internet On Thursday?
This story is not a planned obsolescence story, but a security certification story. This part of computer code that secures the Internet connection between a device and a website. However, on Thursday at 16:01, the “IdentTrust DST Root CA X3” certificate expires after 20 years of good and loyal service, according to a report by a computer security expert. on his blog.
As of this date, sites that use this certificate may display an error message when trying to connect to them… using certain devices.
What devices are affected?
Fortunately for us, expert Scott Helm has listed the affected devices, which range from smartphones to video game consoles, that are more than four years old.
For smartphones, for example, those who work on Android with a version earlier than 7.1.1 (released in 2016) are worried; Those with version 2.3.6 (released in 2011) may work but only under certain technical conditions. For iPhones, you must have downloaded the larger version of iOS 10, which was released at least June 2016. Be careful, however, only iPhone 5 can access this update, which can make your iPhone 4 out of date.
For computers, those running Windows XP SP2 (released 2004) and earlier versions are applicable. For Apple computers (MacBook and iMac), you’ll need to download at least macOS version 10.12.1, which was released in September 2016.
As for other hardware types, Scott Helme expresses reservations, without certainty. Thus alerts on Kindle tablet readers, with version 3.4.1 of their system or earlier. PS4 game consoles with firmware 5.00 (released in 2017) or earlier may also have problems.
How can the problem be addressed?
Fortunately, if you are facing this problem, there is a way to fix it before you get rid of your device. It’s all about the update. Make sure to perform the latest operating system update.
Alternatively, you can download Firefox browser, which uses its own security certificate store and is therefore not affected by this issue.