Cell-phones five-years or older may not work with a proposed new way of verifying certified websites, such as online banking terminals, Google, and Facebook.
Much of the U.S. considers a smartphone such as an iPhone 3GS (which came out in 2009, followed in 2010 by the iPhone 4) an antique; however the change in coding encrypted websites could cut up to 7 percent of internet access to parts of the developing world.
KSRM asked David Morris with GCI if he knew if any parts of Alaska cellular internet users might be affected.
Morris: “We’ve asked our wireless engineers and we’re going to make calls to our manufacturers to substantiate this but we can’t find any evidence that that is the case. In any event, there are relatively few smartphones out there that are older than five-years-old, they simply update them or update their operating system.”
He says GCI has no way of knowing the types or models of cell phones users are connecting with, the company can only see the data used.
The change was proposed by the industry group that sets encryption data, CA/Browser Forum.
The problem is current version of “cryptographic hashing algorithm” used by most websites is unsafe, meaning that the code that tells your browser that you are on the valid site instead of a fraudulent one is easily broken.
CA/Browser Forum opted for newer, stronger versions as of January 1, 2016.
However due to push back from encrypted sites like Facebook, CloudFlare, and Twitter that were worried about cutting off users in undeveloped countries, the newer version’s implementation is still being discussed.