Regarding Unmatching Security Certificate Warning

mindenroses

I'm a hobbyist who follows a number of web sites for my interests: Scale modelling, motor racing, military, naval and aviation history. None of these involve purchases or financial information, and often I'm not registered as a member on these sites. With some sites that I've visited in the past, and bookmarked, I'm now receiving this warning message from Bitdefender: "Your connection to this web page is not safe due to an unmatching security certificate. This means that the certificate was issued for a different web address than the one it is being used for, and you run the risk of exposing your data by accessing this page."

What personal data of mine actually can be exposed or compromised by continuing and visiting such sites?

Alexandru_BD

Hello @mindenroses and welcome to the Community.

The notification is triggered by Bitdefender’s Online Threat Prevention module whenever there is an attempt to access an HTTPS domain that has security certificate issues. Unlike HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), HTTPS (safer HTTP Secure standard, HTTPS) is encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS), securing communications between your computer and the websites you visit.

HTTPS is indicated by the small lock symbol that appears in front of the address line whenever you visit a website. 

The padlock usually means the site has a valid HTTPS certificate, the site domain is verified to match the name on the certificate, and the connection to the website is encrypted. In other words, the information exchanged between you and that domain is not in clear text, but encrypted. Unsafe domains are external links to websites that do not have a security certificate issued by a trusted certificate authority, have an unmatching or expired security certificate, and could contain phishing, malware, or unwanted software.

If you are still receiving the “Suspicious connection blocked” notification, head to the link below for solutions:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2471/

I hope the information is helpful.

Regards,

Alex

mindenroses

Your answer is informative but not directly responsive to my question. I'm receiving this Bitdefender warning on sites that I've previously visited. These sites fall into two categories: 1) Hobby sites that do not have any products for sale and, therefore, do not ask for any financial information; and 2) Vendors regarded as legitimate that I have bought from previously without any problems, but whose sites now have "unmatching security certificate[s]" warnings.

So, again, my qurestion is: What personal data of mine actually can be exposed or compromised by continuing and visiting such sites, especially where I provide no financial information? Many thanks for any help!