Having Trouble Accessing Our Secure Pages

March 11, 2011

Recently Frederick Mutual upgraded our SSL Certificate to SHA-2 SSL in order to provide our clients with the best security possible.  SSL certificates are used to secure the communication between your web browser and our website. SHA-2 SSL certificate hashing is a cryptographic algorithm developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Security Agency (NSA).  SHA2 certificates are more secure than all previous algorithms, and are being required in certain applications in place of certificates signed with the SHA-1 hash function beginning January 1, 2011.  Many organizations will be required to upgrade to SHA-2 (also known as SHA2 or SHA-256) SSL certificates in conjunction with updated federal, internet security and PCI compliance standards.

 As a result of our upgrade we have found some people whose Operating System is at Windows XP Service Pack 2 or older or at Windows 2003 Service Pack 2 or older are experiencing problems logging into our agency portal or secure webpages used to report a claim or pay their bill online.  SP3 for XP became available on April 21, 2008 and for Windows 2003 a Hotfix became available March 5, 2009.  To correct the login problem, any system that is still at Service Pack 2 with XP needs to be upgraded to Service Pack 3 and for Windows 2003 the Hotfix needs to be installed.   Any system that needs the SP3 upgrade or the Hotfix is more than likely behind on other Windows upgrades.  We highly recommend doing the Windows updates for the Operating System you are currently on.  Many times these updates are security related and should not be overlooked due to the security risks your system could encounter.   Please read the web pages in the links below entirely before attempting any updates.

 As always Frederick Mutual is concerned about the integrity and security of all data and we wish to thank you for your business.

 If your OS is Windows XP - Check if Windows XP SP3 is already installed and how to install it

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/help/learn-how-to-install-windows-xp-service-pack-3-sp3

 If your OS is Windows 2003 – Hotfix

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938397

 

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