Y2K compliant: warm and fuzzy words, especially if you've purchased a new computer some time in the last year or so. You may figure you're safe from the Millennium Panic, free and clear to wake up on the first of January, log-on to your favorite commerce site and order stuff just like always.
One problem, though. You may not be able to, even if the Y2K sky doesn't fall. If you've put off upgrading your old (4.05 or earlier) Netscape browser, there is a very good likelihood that the browser will not recognize the certificate for your root certificate authorities - the entities that assure all other Web merchants' identities. If you have an old (4.x or earlier) Internet Explorer browser, the problem is even worse. That browser suffers from the same problem, but doesn't tell you.
There are a few root certificate authority (CA) companies that sell certificates to Web merchants. They are VeriSign, Thawte, GTE CyberTrust and Entrust.net. In order to get a certificate from a CA, a merchant submits proof of its identity to the root CA service provider, from which the CA generates a public key pair. The CA then digitally signs the merchant's certificate, which is installed on the merchant's Web server and used to encrypt sensitive information, such as credit cards.
The problem is that CAs have certificates also, which, for security reasons, are hard-coded into the most popular browsers, like Netscape and Internet Explorer. The certificates for the early Netscape versions will expire at the end of the year. When that happens, an error message alerts the consumer to the problem. The early Internet Explorer browsers are not so considerate, however. There is no warning of the expired certificate, leaving the purchaser with a non-secure transaction.
So, upgrade your browser now. There's no reason not to. It's easy, quick and free. Not doing so won't be the end of the world, but why take the chance? For more information on upgrading Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Netscape's Communicator, visit the following sites:
Microsoft (www.microsoft.com/ms.htm) \nNetscape (www.netscape.com)
