If you visit what you think is a secure website, like your bank, or Paypal, or credit card company website, and get an error in the browser saying There is a problem with this website’s security certificate, it can be more than a little worrisome. Internet Explorer offers no explanation of the problem, so figuring out how to solve the issue is a bit of a challenge. There are two primary reasons you might see an error like There is a problem with this website’s security certificate. One possible scenario is an issue with your computer you can easily fix, the other possible scenario has to do with the way you typed in the website address. I’ll walk you through how to fix both.

One common cause of security certificate warnings in Internet Explorer is a problem with your computer’s clock setting. If the clock gets set too far in the past or too far in the future, it can make your browser think the secure certificate for the website is no longer valid. Before you panic and assume there is something wrong with the website you are visiting, double check the date on your computer clock. If the date on your computer isn’t today’s date, fix the date, reboot, then try visiting the site again. Many times, this solves the problem.

The other reason for seeing There is a problem with this website’s security certificate error messages is the security certificate of the website is configured for a more specific website address than the one you used. For instance, as I write this, if you type https://bankofamerica.com in Internet Explorer, you will get this error. If you type http://www.bankofamerica.com instead, the error goes away. This is because Bank of America only has the security certificate information for their site configured for using www in the website address. If your clock settings are correct, try using a different URL for the secure website you are trying to visit, in most cases this solves the problem.