You may have heard that there will be a global Internet “blackout” this Thursday. This is not a hoax or an apocalyptic prediction or a renewed Y2K bug.
Several cell phones, computers and consoles could suffer from a global Internet blackout
It won’t be a widespread problem to begin with, but it may affect some mobile devices and computers. Should you be concerned? The truth is that it will not be a problem for most current equipment, but it may cause problems for those who have an older device (be it a phone, computer or game console) and have not updated it regularly.
The reason for this outage is that this September 30 at 14.01 GMT an old “root certificate”, called IdentTrust DST Root CA X3, which acts as a link between some devices and the Internet, expires.
These types of authentication certificates serve to ensure the security of online connections.
But once it expires this Thursday it will become insecure for the network, which can cause errors on a wide range of devices, operating systems and outdated browsers.
Which devices may be affected?
For Apple devices, the problem would be for those with iOS version 9 or earlier.
While for Android devices, those affected would be those running version 2.3.6 or earlier.
Computers running Windows XP Service Pack 3 and earlier versions could also be affected. And in the case of Macs, those with macOS 10.12.0 or earlier version.
The PlayStation 3 game console, the PlayStation 4 with firmware update 5.0 or lower, as well as the Nintendo 3DS, appear on the list of possible affected devices. Blackberry 10.3.3 or devices with Java 8 below version 8u141 or Java 7 below version 7u151 could also be affected.
