Leaky Cauldron Access

[Steve]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at e...>
wrote:
> When I tried to open the Leaky Cauldron link this morning, I got a 
> security alert and it wouldn't open without my verifying 
> some "certificate". 
> 
> What is this? Is it just my firewall, Zone Alarm? This hasn't 
> happened before, esp. to links I access all the time. 
> 
> Jen, hoping a computer expert will come to the rescue!

bboy_mn:

I don't think the Certificate request was a problem. There are several
Security Certificates on your computer, and they are there for your
safety. I've yet to hear of any of these being misused. For example,
I've never heard of a virus getting into a computer via a security
certificate.

The major moderator and issuer of certificates is Verisign. These
certificates are related to encoding/encripting data that is
transferred between you and certain websites. It is also used to
authenticate both parties to make sure someone isn't pretending to be
you or pretending to be a certain website. (Overly generalized
explanation to be sure)

I think the certificate request came up because you were re-directed
to the HOST website rather than to the Leaky Cauldron website. The
HOST saw you as a new user who was trying to access the administration
tools for the Leaky Cauldron, and wanted to create a new certificate
to assure safe communication between you and the administration sight.

Since you will virtually never have anything to do with the
administration of the Leaky Cauldron, it doesn't matter whether you
accepted or rejected the certificate.

Steve/bboy_mn