11 February 2017

Online QST security issue

Sorry for the long QRX - too busy to update this blog for months!

I've found a spare moment to catch up on my reading and checked the ARRL site for QST.  Seems they have changed to a new online provider "Pagesuite".

I was hoping that might dispense with the annoying page-turning junk that so many online magazines seem to think is neat (hint: this is 2017, not 1817!) so I clicked the September 2016 QST cover to check it.

The ARRL QST link took me to the Pagesuite.UK website, with the login screen shown above ... but I don't have credential for that site, and anyway I noticed that it is an ordinary HTTP page, not HTTPS.  


ARRL members who don't notice that may well be submitting their credentials (for Pagesuite or maybe for ARRL) over an unencrypted link.

There is no "Register" option on the Pagesuite screen, so I'm stuck at this point: I can't read QST online any more.  

The QST logo took ages to appear too, so I get the feeling their webserver might be an IoT thing, maybe a lightbulb in someone's bedroom.  A dim one.

Back to the drawing board, ARRL!

73
Gary  ZL2iFB

UPDATE: they are at least sending readers to the HTTPS page now, but once in it's still as tedious as ever waiting for the pages to turn.