Several parts of the federal government have been shut down for about a month now, and cybersecurity professionals say government websites are becoming more vulnerable to security breaches each day the shutdown lasts.
Visitors to manufacturing.gov, for instance, are finding that the site has become unusable — its information about the manufacturing sector is no longer accessible. Instead, it features this message at the top of the homepage:
NOTICE: Due to a lapse in appropriations, Manufacturing.gov and all associated online activities will be unavailable until further notice.
Security certificates help keep websites secure, but last week the British security firm Netcraft reported that more than 130 certificates used by U.S. government websites had expired.
These certificates make sure users know “this is really the government resource that I’m trying to access and not some bad guy,” explains Dan Kaminsky, the chief scientist at the security firm White Ops.
The lack of a certificate makes it easier for a bad actor to trick you into going to a fake site. Even though there’s a warning when you click on a site without an updated certificate, Kaminsky says, “people might…
