How to find and fix insecure content on your website

Explore the ways to find and fix the insecure content on your website.

Imagine installing an SSL certificate on your website, and there is a disappointment lying ahead that you see “insecure content.” Warning in the browser URL field, which means your website is not directly accessible on some browsers as a result you will lose most of the traffic that will come to that page. Mostly SSL certificates prevent you from such problems, but in a few cases, it can still occur. You must know about it and ways to fix it, such that users who land on the website can see the page without any trouble.

Related: PK Domain

Have you seen the message below before?

Yes, this occurs if the web page has insecure content. Well, what exactly is this insecure content causing so many hoaxes among web developers and website owners.

What is insecure content?

Insecure content is any file accessed via an HTTP connection rather than an HTTPS link from a particular web page. The ‘S’ in HTTPS shows that the page is secure.

If a page contains some vulnerable information, the entire page can only be accessed through an HTTP connection. If someone tries to access that page via HTTPS, their browser will display a frightening security alert.

To better understand the insecure or mixed content, you must know that a message is sent to the server before a website is loaded on your browser, requesting the content that makes up that page. The majority of web pages are made up of a mixture of the previously listed material, and each resource is downloaded separately. The page is shown in your browser after the content has been downloaded.

When any downloaded content is loaded via HTTP rather than HTTPS, it results in insecure content. Now, you imagine adding a credit card or any other personal information to the site that warns you about being insecure; you will avoid it. This is where it becomes a problem for many users of your website.

Why is this content such a big issue?

If some of your site’s content is served over an HTTP link, your entire site will be served over HTTP by default, even if you have an SSL certificate. SSL certificates can only encrypt traffic between your server and a user’s browser; they can’t encrypt traffic between your server and other servers.

Man-in-the-middle attacks, which occur when malicious software intercepts and modifies the link between a browser and the server, could make users vulnerable to a website with mixed content.

Furthermore, users may be greeted with a message alerting them to the mixed content on your platform, and they may understandably decline to proceed.

The problem can often interfere with the design and content of your website. For example, if Chrome prevents an essential JavaScript script from loading, your website theme will not be properly displayed to visitors. Alternatively, critical media such as photographs and video would not be shown to consumers.

How to find it and fix the insecure content?

Finding the insecure Content

Don’t be desperate if you think your website is fragile and you don’t have any idea where to start to fix it. Many tools are available to help:

·         Why no padlock? – Simply enter your website’s URL, and this simple tool will detect any vulnerable elements on your SSL-protected domain.

·         HTTPS checker– Search for any HTTP content and common HTTPS migration problems on your website.

Fixing the Insecure Content

Now that you’ve determined which file(s) are making your page vulnerable, it’s time to protect them. Use an HTTPS URL instead that you connect to an HTTP URL to do this.

If you have issues with the image or any multimedia files, you can:

·         Rather than connecting from somewhere else, upload the file directly to your site (if legally possible).

·         Connect to the content from a more stable host.

·         Remove the file entirely from your website.

Another solution, if you have a WordPress site, is the SSL Insecure Content Fixer plugin. When it comes to identifying and fixing basic mixed content problems, this plugin can do most of the heavy lifting. To deal with more detailed fixes, the settings may be updated.

Summary

Ultimately, you have to install the SSL certificate. But if your website has insecure content, it will still be a problem. Then, you need to locate it through the tools and fix it. You can check out the methods mentioned above. They are most common among the experts. If you have any confusion about the method of finding and fixing the insecure content, SilkHost can help with the SSL certificate whenever you buy a domain or web hosting in Pakistan.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *