Wednesday, November 14, 2007

"Security Error" in library logins

The CSU system just implemented a security measure for CONSULS logins (electronic reserves, requesting books from the other campuses, etc.) When you log into CONSULS, you should now go to an https page, rather than a plain http page. Unfortunately, in most browsers this is now causing a "security error". The security certificate is registered to ctstateu.edu (like the databases) but the library catalog is consuls.org. The mismatch causes the error.

You can safely click Continue, or OK, or Yes, I want to proceed, or Accept, or whatever similar message you get. It's not a browser hijacking attempt or a phisher.

Depending on your browser you may get this every time you log into the CONSULS catalog. There is a similar security error when logging into Refworks--in that case, the Refworks company needs to update their website. It's also OK to Continue, Accept, Proceed, etc. into Refworks. Update 11/16/07: It helps when you actually read the security messages. (By the way, Firefox produces much better messages than IE7.) The problem is not Refworks' security update anymore, but something else. It may be something about our link or our network. In any case, you can definitely click through, and, with any luck, we'll figure this out and eliminate the problem completely. Thanks, Christine at Refworks, for getting back to me so quickly!

(I hate telling people to ignore the security messages they are getting from their browsers, but in these two cases it really is OK to proceed. Generally, do NOT proceed on other sites, especially ones that you don't know anything about. These security systems are in place for a reason and there is a lot of bad stuff out there. So speaks someone who used to help clean out people's computers after they visited certain websites. A few extra clicks is definitely better than reformatting your hard drive.)

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi There,

RefWorks Certs are good until 2010. Please contact me directly and we will figure out where the problem is.

Christine

Christine Capen
Director, Technical Services
www.RefWorks.com
1155 West Fourth Street
Suite 212
Reno, Nevada
89503
Office 775 327 4105
Fax 775 327 4112

5:59 PM, November 15, 2007  

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