Don't forget to update your systems - I just forgot, and lots of websites went offline!

Sometimes you are learning in the hard way. Right now, I did that! I have a couple of websites that I host and run, but they don't have a lot of traffic, and I don't spend much time updating them. As a result, I don't check them, and I don't visit them. But, today I suddenly received a request concerning such a websites. I quickly visited the website, only to discover that the SSL certificate was out of date. So, in order to visit the website, a visitor would have to convince their browser that the website is safe, even though the security certificate is out of date. But, who would do that? If your browser warns you about a website, you normally listen!

As a result, I have quite a lot of websites that have been completely without visitors for the last 7 days!!

What caused the problem? Lack of attention and outdated software.

I have been running those websites from a VPS running Virtualmin (a webhosting software). It is incredibly cool, but since it is working so well, I haven't really been paying any attention to it. Until today...

There was an error in the original Virtualmin package that I installed, and thus, it wasn't able to renew the SSL certificates for the different websites I was hosting there. As a result, the websites turned "black" once the SSL certificates were outdated. And that is what I discovered today.

What was the solution? I had to visit the control panel of Virtualmin and refresh all the packages. Once this happened, the SSL certificates automatically started to update themselves, and the websites went back online.

What is the lesson?

Keep your software up to date! It is what can protect you against viruses, your operating system from bugs and vulnerabilities, your phone against hackers, and so much more.

I learned it through some websites todays, but tomorrow, it might be somewhere else.

This might not be the longest article I have written in my life, but I hope you have gotten the essence of it!

Thanks for reading!

This is an original article written by me for Project Hope!