Firefox, Chrome and IE can't load the website through a secure connection

Apr 20, 2013 05:20 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft's very own search engine Bing is currently unavailable for users who wish to access it through a secure connection due to what seems to be a security certificate issue.

At this point, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Microsoft's Internet Explorer are unable to load the website, providing users with a message informing about the problem.

“You have asked Firefox to connect securely to bing.com, but we can't confirm that your connection is secure. Normally, when you try to connect securely, sites will present trusted identification to prove that you are going to the right place. However, this site's identity can't be verified,” the message displayed by Firefox reads.

As usual, you can create special rules for Bing in any of the aforementioned browsers if you really wish to bypass the notification and access the search engine.

Microsoft is yet to release a statement on the matter or to provide more information about what's happening, but new details are very likely to be provided soon.

Update: Here's what Gregory Webb, VP Marketing at Venafi, has told Softpedia in a mini-interview on this security certificate issue:

“Digital certificates and encryption keys are frequently thought of as largely security technologies, yet many enterprises don’t realize the critical role they play to enable smooth operations. Certificates are necessary to ensure systems, servers and applications properly connect and share information.

"Significant brand damage can occur when they are mismanaged that results in unplanned outages or error messages. According to searchenginewatch.com, Bing has 16 percent market share and Alexa ranks NBA.com as a member of its top 500. This makes it quite clear that a simple SSL certificate misconfiguration error can impact millions of consumers, site performance and likely revenues.”

“Digital certificate mismanagement is frequently the result of human error and a lack of PKI expertise. By deploying a solution that automates the entire lifecycle of the certificate management process—including discovery, continuous monitory and policy-based management--organizations can avoid errors that disrupt operations and drive users away from sites and brands.”