Symantec recently revealed that it had issued fake security certificates to domains including Google. As expected, Google was not happy at all. Google came out with a statement saying that if Symantec does not meet its transparency requirements by June 1,2016, that it might cause problems for the antivirus maker. This can be read as a threat that Google will be marking its websites as insecure, Engadget reported.
Google is also some tough questions, such as why Symantec did not catch some of the bogus certificates, the causes behind it, and concrete steps that the company will take to make it right with Google again. Symantec also came out with a white paper to explain what had transpired.
In here, Symantec said that it issued only a small number of certificates and that they had taken them down before notifying any of the affected parties. Faulty certificates to Google, Opera, and other unnamed domains were recorded. According to Symantec, a total of only 23 test certificates were inappropriately issued.
The company had also fired some of its staff members for allegedly failed to follow test security certificate guidelines. While this is all well and good for warming of relations again, the fact that Symantec downplayed the event is sure to have a ripple effect. They said that only a handful of websites were affected. However, Symantec's second audit revealed that as many as 2,600 dodgy certificates were discovered. Certainly not a small number.
Google's official stance was made public in the Google Online Security Blog. In here, Google also listed down a couple of additional and exhaustive requirements it has to Symantec. Although the incident is not likely to happen again, the mere fact that Symantec is now on Google's radar could spell trouble for the company.
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