This, for the most part, leaves them vulnerable to various forms of attacks that the use of digital certificates was designed to protect them against. In this study, the behaviors of a pool of 409 Internet users were tracked to ascertain their reactions to warnings related to SSL. For the most part, the report concluded that "far too many participants exhibited dangerous behavior in all warning conditions."

It's no wonder, since another study in January 2009 found that a staggering 44 percent of 382,860 SSL-enabled websites will trigger various warnings. Ironically, those who did not understand the implications of expired certificate warnings were actually more likely to pay attention to them.

I see it as a chicken and egg situation. The fact that most users are more than happy to bypass various SSL errors is resulting in fewer sites working to ensure a seamless and secure browsing experience. This in turn only "trains" more users to simply disregard SSL. What do you think can be done to improve the current state of affairs?

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Ars Technica

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By: Paul Mah for .