Free replacement certificates are available—visit your existing Symantec, Thawte, GeoTrust, and RapidSSL portals.
With the Google Chrome 66 beta release scheduled for March 15th—to be followed by the Chrome 66 stable version on April 17th of this year—we’re continuing to communicate with you, our customers, through multiple channels about how to replace affected Symantec-issued certificates for free. The certificates in question are any issued by Symantec, Thawte, GeoTrust, or RapidSSL before June 1, 2016. DigiCert offers free replacement certificates to help you avoid warnings and disruptions to your HTTPS-enabled sites.
See Google Chrome advisory: Distrust of the Symantec PKI: Immediate action needed by site operators.
We’ve simplified the process so you can use your existing front-end portal to initiate replacement of affected certificates with a couple of clicks—similar to a typical renewal process. There is no need to learn new systems or work with new account representatives. To help you identify impacted certificates, we created a simple web tool, found here: https://ssltools.digicert.com/checker/. Just enter your domain name to see if and when your Symantec-issued certificate needs to be replaced by DigiCert. This tool also will help you identify certificates to be affected by the Chrome 70 release later this year.
On December 1, 2017, DigiCert began issuing all new certificates for the Symantec, GeoTrust, Thawte, and Rapid SSL brands after meeting browser requirements for replacing Symantec back-end systems and processes. Since that time, we’ve helped many of you replace your Symantec-issued certificates for free. With a goal of reaching every customer and partner impacted by the Chrome timelines, we’ve communicated in multiple ways (and our apologies if it seems excessive, we want to leave no stone unturned). Our focus continues to center on helping all customers understand what action to take.
Here is a summary of the steps we’ve taken to make sure affected customers are aware:
- Sent a series of nearly 600,000 e-mails to customers reminding them of deadlines, action items, and information
- Established an outbound call center, calling all affected customers
- Displayed reminder messages in multiple global languages in the portals customers use to order and manage certificates
- Hosted multiple webinars, with another scheduled for next week
- Posted documentation in multiple global languages for replacing Symantec-issued certificates
We’ve hired more than 200 additional staff to help with the large spike of inbound communication to our support and validation teams. As we approach the March 15 Chrome 66 beta release, we remind you, our valued customers, not to delay visiting your portals, and to initiate the free certificate replacement process right away. Replacement certificates will need to be installed to avoid browser warnings. If you have any questions, please reach out to your account representative or contact us at distrustinfo@digicert.com.