Staff from the University Website and Communications Team alongside colleagues from Applications Division have successfully delivered a key project to update the University's centrally hosted web services to HTTPS. Due to an impending change and update of Google Chrome (release 62), due October 2017, Google intended to change the way websites were treated when served over HTTP. Where this is a test input field then that page needed to be served over HTTPS. A failure to do so could result in a Not Secure warning. Also if the browser was used in ‘Incognito’ mode then this too would show HTTP sites as Not Secure. The project was also set up to protect the reputation of the University in that Users would not question the security of the site they accessed. Something that may have happened should they have spotted the Not Secure comment in their browser bar. The project team also produced and enacted a diverse communications strategy ensuring that all users of the various University websites understood the changes and the impact of not making the sites secure. The diverse team worked exceptionally well together, improving communications and plans by holding Daily ‘Stand Ups ‘ to ensure that they focused on the key deliverables. This was vital in such an important project and one which had to be delivered very quickly. From kick off to end the project lasted approximately 7 weeks, delivered on time and under budget. More details are available here. Publication date 28 Nov, 2017
