Older Android phones will no longer support many secure websites by 2021

If you are doing doomscrolling Newspapers on older Android phones may be up to date. Phones running pre-7.1.1 versions of Android will be disconnected from large areas of the secure web from 2021, warns one of the world’s top certification officials Android Police Saturday report.

Let’s do Mozilla-joint non-profit encryption Fellow Certification Officer Aiden said its partnership with the trust expires in September. 1, 2021. Since there are no plans to renew its cross-signing agreement, we will encrypt to stop the default cross-signing for Aiden Trust’s root certificate, DST Root X3, starting January 11th. .

This is a very significant change considering that One-third All web domains rely on company certifications. But since the old software does not trust the root certificate of Lets Encrypt, it may “introduce some compatibility woes,” said lead developer Jacob Hoffman-Andrews. A blog post Friday.

“Some software that has not been updated since 2016 (almost when our root was accepted for many root programs) still does not trust our root certificate, ISRG Root X1,” he said. “Most importantly, it includes Android versions before 7.1.1. That is, older versions of Android no longer trust the certificates issued by Encryption. ”

The only way for these users is to install Firefox because it relies on its own Certificate Store, which includes the root of Lets Encrypt, although it does not break applications or ensure functionality beyond your browser.

Based on data from Google’s Android Development suite, about 34% of Android devices run older than 7.1. This translates to millions of users who can be disconnected from large areas of the secure web starting in 2021. In short, if you have noticed anything New phones This holiday season will only be worth it if you save yourself a headache later.