If you used VetBact or AgriMyc between 15 May and 11 June, 2026, you would have seen warnings about the connection to the website not being secure. The reason was that our so-called SSL certificate had expired.
The use of SSL certificates to ensure encrypted and secure connections between webservers and browsers has been recommended for several years although it could be argued that encryption isn’t strictly necessary in cases where no sensitive information is transmitted, such as here on VetBact.
SSL certificates were commonly valid for up to one year, but this has recently changed and they are now valid for much shorter periods, often as short as between one and two months. This shortening has naturally put some extra strain on website maintainers but our IT department has now implemented SSL certificates from the non-profit certificate authority Let’s Encrypt. The certificates are easily renewable so hopefully we won’t see those security warnings in the future.