Google Chrome Won’t Recognize Chinese Certificates

A Chinese web regulator has recently slammed as “unacceptable” a decision by the tech giant to no longer recognize its certificates of trust. This may result in preventing Chrome browser users from accessing websites approved by the Chinese authority.

The search giant announced a few days ago that it stops recognizing the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) certificate authorities. Google took this decision after a joint investigation between it and CNNIC into a potential security lapse. In other words, users of Google’s Chrome, which is currently the most popular Internet browser, may see a warning when trying to visit websites certified by CNNIC. Thus far, it is unknown how many websites the Chinese authorities have certified and which of them could yield warning messages.

The China Internet Network Information Center plays a central role in administering the country’s Internet – for example, it allocates and certifies IP addresses and domain names. The body urged Google to consider user rights and interests, claiming that its decision is “unacceptable and unintelligible”.

In the meantime, Google took this decision in regard to CNNIC’s certificates after the Chinese agency had allowed Cairo-based company to issue unauthorized certificates for various Google domains. The tech giant explained that such move rendered connections between users and the websites vulnerable to ”man-in-the-middle” hacking attacks, which are able to intercept and alter communications.

By the way, Google was not the only one who removed trust of those unauthorized certificates – Microsoft and Mozilla, which also develop the world’s most-used web browsers, did the same. Google clarified that CNNIC was welcome to reapply for recognition after implementing suitable technical and procedural controls, saying that the body’s existing certificates would be trusted for a limited time.

The Cairo-based company explained that the security lapse in question resulted from a human error that occurred when testing certificates. As for the Cyberspace Administration of China, the body responsible for regulation of the country’s Internet, it didn’t provide any comments on the situation.

We should remind that Google shut down its local search engine in China 5 years ago over censorship concerns, and most of its services still remain inaccessible in China.