I'm trying to buy something from a website but my computer says

[SpeedyGonzalez]

"Warning: unauthenticated content" and has a bright red exclamation mark over the padlock security symbol.

Thing is, I've used the site dozens of times before, to buy train tickets. Could this just be a blip?

[BadgersPaws]

Can you confirm what browser you're using?

I'm guessing the address of the page you're on is a https one? e.g. www.thesite.com

What that usually means is that the page you're viewing while itself secure, via https, is calling in elements that are not secure. So it might have images or even cookies from some more general site.

That's usually caused by sloppy design on the secure page so it's usually not a problem.

However confirm the Browser just so I can check that I've got the error right.

[SpeedyGonzalez]

You're amazing! Yes, it is a https address. I'm on Firefox, what does that mean?

[BadgersPaws]

That's the error then....

The site has probably been a bit clumsy and somewhere on that page is a reference to an object that your browser is then getting via normal, that is unsecure, http transfer.

It shouldn't be that much of a problem, especially if you've used the site before.

Try clicking on the little padlock symbol and you might well get a bit more detail on what's going on, what does it say?

[SpeedyGonzalez]

It says it's partially encrypted, and that information which I send may be viewed by other people while in transit.

[BadgersPaws]

Yup, that's exactly the problem.

https is encrypted between you and the web server.

However some of the page is being downloaded/sent using http, so it's not encrypted.

As said if it's a site you've used before it is probably going to be fine, especially if you're paying with a credit card as that gives you extra protection.

If it were me I'd also hunt through the source of the web page and check out exactly what is being grabbed/sent using http to make sure I knew what was going on.

That's reasonably technical though.

Use a credit card, don't let is save the card number and you should be OK.

[SpeedyGonzalez]

Thank you so much, you've really helped. Now I can tick one more thing off my list today!

For you

[BadgersPaws]

Thank you :)