Safari Just Labeled a Website as “Not Secure.” What Does it Mean and What Do You Do Next?

It doesn’t matter how old you are or how often you go online – cybersecurity is always going to be at the top of your mind.

When you think about the sheer volume of personal information that we store on computers and smartphones like the iPhone these days, it would be devastating if any of that fell into the wrong hands.

To Apple’s credit, iOS has a reputation for being the most secure mobile operating system out there.

They’ve included a number of features over the years like encryption that mean even Apple themselves could get to your data if you didn’t allow them to.

There are also security features built into the Safari mobile browser – like a warning that notifies you when a website is not secure.

Safari’s Security Warnings: An Overview

If you happen to be browsing a website and see the words “Not Secure” appear in your browser’s toolbar, the first thing you should do is take a deep breath.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that the website you’re trying to view has been breached. Nor does it mean that any of your personal information has been compromised.

What it does mean, however, is that the website you’re trying to access is using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (or HTTP) instead of Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (or HTTPS).

The latter is a far more secure way of setting up a website, and it means that the site’s owners have actually encrypted all of their data (and by extension, your data) using all the latest best practices.

If you’re trying to get to a site where you’re entering sensitive information (like if you’re logging into an account or submitting credit card information), it’s much safer to do so if the site is using HTTPS.

That’s not to say that something bad is guaranteed to happen if you enter any of that information into a site using only HTTP. HTTP formed the backbone of the Internet for years.

It’s just that there’s a newer and more sophisticated way to keep your personal information safe and the site’s owners aren’t taking advantage of it.

This is what Safari is trying to tell you whenever it labels a site you’re visiting as “Not Secure,” so keep that in mind as you browse the Internet on your iPhone.

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