never had an issue like this before with the forum but an advertiser is getting grabbed by my anti-virus program.



Online Threat Prevention : firefox.exe attempted to establish a connection relying on an unmatching security certificate to cdn-2.psndealer.com. We blocked the connection to keep your data safe since the used certificate was issued for a different web address than the targeted one.
Add to exceptions

 

Yep, seeing some of that recently on other sites too, especially on the advertisement sidebars, and not all web browsers handle it the same way. The SSl certificate ensures the site you are visiting is legitimately the site it says it is, and provides encryption between the site and your browser so unscrupulous people can't read the data exchange, like a password etc. Without encryption, all data is exchanged in plain text and readable by others.

For any online commerce or sites you log into, check (before you login) for the padlock at the beginning of the URL, You can click on the padlock to verify the certificate is for the site you are visiting, including this site. And you can view the date the cert was issues and when it expires. I always check the cert if I am about to make a purchase online, especially if it's a place I have not purchased from previously.

The SSL certificates used to be valid for several years, last year that protocol was changed to expire certificates after 1 year, to improve security on the internet so that SSL certificates. Browsers will give pop up warnings if a certificate is expired, or even if it was issued for more than 398 days. So I believe the site you visited had an expired certificate, or if didn't match the host name of the site you actually reached. Sometimes a miss-spelling of a URL can lead to lots of problems, so the cert thing is real and should not be ignored.

https://news.gandi.net/en/2020/07/the-maximum-duration-of-ssl-certificates-soon-to-be-reduced-to-1-year/"Following restrictions announced by Apple about improving security on the web, the international regulation of SSL certificates is changing. The Certificate Authorities (CA) have agreed to reduce the lifetime of an SSL certificate to 12 months maximum. This measure will take effect September 1, 2020.

Measure applicable September 1, 2020

Change is in the air for security in Safari web browser. Starting September 1, 2020, the maximum length of an SSL certificate accepted by Apple’s native web browser will be 398 days. Which is to say, HTTPS certificates that expire more than 13 months after their creation will no longer be accepted. Apple announced the change at the CA/Browser forum (CA/B) that took place February 2020 in Bratislava (Slovakia).

Safari will no longer display sites that don’t follow this new rule: an invalid certificate will cause a break in the HTTPS connection which will in turn entail an error message when trying to access the site in question.
While the decision has not yet been put into effect, Google, via Chrome, had previously signaled last year that they would follow a similar decision."
Paul