Fellow FunTrivia members,

there has recently been some concern about the "Site not secure" message that shows up in some browsers, particularly Google Chrome, when loading FunTrivia.

This message just means that your connection is not encrypted - which is not a significant risk in the context of playing trivia.

An unencrypted connection means that theoretically, an attacker who has access to any of the network components located between you and FunTrivia could read and/or modify the data being sent - an attack that requires some significant effort. While this ability could obviously cause some significant harm when the data you send is critical - payments, purchases or important private data - it does not allow an attacker to do anything else. Putting this into a FunTrivia context means that someone could read or change your quiz answers or a message.

I should however point out that this also applies to the login data you send, which includes your password. This could cause some indirect issues if you use the same login data on other, sensitive sites.

We strongly recommend that you

- do not use the same password you use on FunTrivia on any important site. Don't use it for your online banking, Ebay, amazon or your Facebook account. (It's fine to use the same password on other purely recreational sites that pose no risk)
- do not post anything about yourself on FunTrivia that you would not be comfortable seeing printed in a newspaper.

While it is planned to convert the site to encrypted connections, this is not a simple task and could have some unwanted side effects; as such Terry will not rush this conversion. In the meantime, rest assured that if you follow the above two recommendations (which are good practice regardless and should be followed on all sites), there is no danger to you or your data.

Wes

PS: If you have any additional questions regarding security, feel free to ask them in a reply or PM.

Thanks for posting this, Wes. I have also noticed it on Firefox, but wasn't worried since, as you mention, my password here is only used for Fun Trivia. But I did wonder what was going on, so now I know.

Many thanks for the information Wes, but I'm having a problem altering my password.

It seemed straightforward, I entered relevant details under "Edit My Profile" including existing and proposed passwords, but then wasn't able to log in here using the new password.

I can only do so by using my old (existing) password, although I'm reasonably certain I followed the correct guidelines!

You changed your password for playing quizzes and games etc. The forums are a separate database. You can edit your profile in here using the My Stuff link at the top of the page, and then the Edit Profile link in the drop down menu:
http://www.funtrivia.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/editbasic

Many thanks gtho4, I've now amended my password accordingly.

"... means that someone could ... change your quiz answers ..."

Yeah! That's what happened! That's why I haven't won 15 Duels in one day! That's why I keep losing in Knockout! It must be this!

BTW I am working on fixing this problem now... the issue is that there are a ton of URLs from the past 20 years that need to be fixed to support this change, so it will take a little bit. But, it is a priority.

YEAH I agree with MiraJane I have the same problem losing both challenges I thought it was my stupidity but now I know better.

Just a head's up: FunTrivia will be switching to SSL / secure connections on Monday. There may be some brief interruptions or issues on the switch over.

Thanks Terry. I bet you'll be glad to get that over and done with.

I've posted a note about this on the General Chatboards for the sake of players who don't use the Forums. With luck it might cut down the number of people who get affected by a reboot and want their points back!

Great thanks.

Yeah, it was a complete PITA because the old site was such a thorough mess of 20 years of redirects and hardcoded http's everywhere. I used this exercise as an excuse though to clean things up and it's all a lot leaner and meaner now.

Any general timeframe on Monday when the switch is likely to happen?

Yes, I think we need some indication when it is likely to go down. I assume that if you are in the middle of a Duel (for example) then you might get a reload penalty or some other unwanted effects.

...or struggling along in the waning days of the Global Challenge!

So what time is the big changeover to HTTPS happening today?

Done.

And well done, too. I have the impression that loading times are slightly lessened.

I get errors whenever I try to submit a quiz or enter the site. I'm using both Chrome and Firefox browsers on a Linux host.

Firefox gives me "SEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER"
Chrome gives "NET_ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID"

Firefox on a windows 10 PC seems to work just fine.

Clearing browsing data did not change anything for me using the Chrome browser.

Hm I can see your issues in the system logs, although it does appear you did load one page correctly from linux in the forums. Did you solve the issue?

I do see a number of other people using Linux to connect to the site, so I suspect there is something about your setup. The references to those errors seem to revolve around anti-malware / virus programs... avast, bitdefender, etc. Running any of them?

The error message points to the issuer (CA) of the security certificate for funtrivia.com not being trusted by the Linux system. I suppose the list of trusted authorities may be a bit too restrictive on that system - you could try to update your list. (I don't know where the certificate is from, but I am sure it is a reputable CA, so it's likely rather a client problem, possibly a remnant of the problems some CAs had in 2018 which subsequently got them blacklisted on some higher security settings)

Terry - no, I haven't gotten it resolved yet. I'm still poking about here.
Wes, thanks for the information.

(At least, I can use my Windows box to get my daily fix...)