Microsoft plans to discontinue the use of the SSLv2 (Secure Socket Layer) protocol in the coming Internet Explorer browser refresh.
In its place, he company will fit the stronger TLSv1 (Transport Layer Security) protocol into IE 7 as part of an overall plan to improve the security and user experience for HTTPS connections.
Microsoft Corp. made the announcement on its official IE Blog where a call to action was issued for Web site owners to make the necessary configuration changes to permit the new protocol connections.
Eric Lawrence, a program manager on the IE team, also warned that the new browser will block navigation to HTTPS sites that present problematic digital certificates.
"Upon encountering a certificate problem, IE7 presents an error page that explains the problem with the digital certificate. The user may choose to ignore the warning and proceed in spite of the certificate error (unless the certificate was revoked)," Lawrence explained.
"If the user clicks through a certificate error page, the address bar will flood fill with red to serve as a persistent notification of the problem," he added.
The UI change will occur is a certificate is issued to a hostname other than the URL's hostname; if a certificate is issued by an untrusted root; or if the certificate is expired or revoked.
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