Data of users of justice.gov.uk may be at risk

Browsers have now started warning users of the criminal justice and court listing site justice.gov.uk that their information is at risk as the website’s SSL certificate expired on December 8. The site contains resources on courts, procedure rules, and offenders. Notably, the site can still be accessed if users click through their browser's warnings.

SSL (secure sockets layer) certificates are used to prove a website's identity and protect online transactions. They can be purchased as a subscription from one of a small group of globally trusted companies, known as a certificate authority.

As a major relief, no transactions take place on justice.gov.uk. Therefore, the issue of the expiry of the SSL certificate will likely not cause any major problems for users who dare to ignore their browser's warning. However, the issue still needs to be resolved on priority as the website contains court data.