Over the years we’ve all been told to look for the golden padlock to make sure you were on a “secure” connection. Well unfortunately, that is no longer true. Whenever you’re about to send sensitive information via the web, you now need to make sure you see the green address bar. Why you ask? Because now the bad guys have golden padlocks too. Have you heard the word “phishing”, “phishing attack”, or “phishing site” within the last year? This is a type of internet fraud where people with bad intentions will create a fake website that looks identical to one’s we’ve all been on and seen before. Once they lure a potential victim to the site, they are after credit card and banking info, login information, and other personal information that you wouldn’t want them to have. What does that have to do with a green address bar? Everything!

Looking for a golden padlock used to be an easy way to ensure you were on a “secure” connection. This secure connection was created with the use of an SSL certificate. These certificates encrypt information while it is in transit over the web. If someone were to intercept the information, they would be unable to read (easily anyway) the information. Fraudsters and hackers are like water; they prefer the path of least resistance. They want that information that’s being sent, but it’s not worth their time to deal with encrypted information-too time consuming. Instead, now they’re become the endpoint, the receiving end of the data transmission, where the data becomes unencrypted. Welcome to the wonderful world of phishing. We ask you, what good is encrypting your information if you’re sending it to a crook anyway?

There are basic SSL certificates that will give you a golden padlock, and all it took to get it is was an email address. Is there a law against criminals having an email address? We know, scary stuff. However, if you are on a site that has a green address bar (technically known as an Extended Validation SSL) you can rest easy and carry on without fear.