‘The identity of website or integrity of connection can’t be verified’

Several users report getting constant Security Alert pop-ups telling them that “The identity of this website or the integrity of this connection cannot be verified”. Affected users report that the error doesn’t go away regardless of what button is clicked, as it returns in a matter of minutes or at the next startup. Some users report that for them the Security Alert warning comes up whenever they start any browser.

The issue is encountered on all the recent Windows versions including Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

What is causing the identity of this website or the integrity of this connection cannot be verified error?

We investigated the issue by looking at various user reports and the fixes that they used to resolve the issue. We were also successful in recreating the issue on one of our testing machines.

From what we were able to gather, there are several fairly common scenarios that are known to trigger The identity of this website or the integrity of this connection cannot be verified error:

If you’re struggling to resolve this particular issue, this article will provide you with a selection of verified steps that will help you troubleshoot the issue away. Below you have a collection of methods that other users in a similar situation have used to get the error message resolved.

For the best results, follow the methods below in order until you encounter a fix that is effective in allowing you to solve the problem in your particular scenario.

Method 1: Attempting to resolve the security alert prompt

When prompted by this security alert error, you are offered three options  – Yes, No and View Certificate. If the website you’re trying to access is trustworthy, you can press Yes to whitelist the website along with its certificate.

Although this should resolve the issue, several affected users have reported that in their case, the error has returned momentarily or at the next system startup. If that’s the case with your situation, continue with the other methods below for other ways of preventing this message from ever occurring again.

Method 2: Disabling publisher & certificate revocation checks

One way to prevent the message from appearing again without compromising the overall security protection system is to customize some security options so that the system no longer checks for publisher & server certificate revocation. This can be done quite easily from the Internet Options settings.

Several users struggling to resolve the same issue have reported that the  identity of this website or the integrity of this connection cannot be verified error is no longer appearing after performing the steps below:

1. Press Windows key + R to open up a Run dialog box. Then, type “inetcpl.cpl” and press Enter to open up the Internet Options (Internet Properties) screen.

   

2. Inside Internet Options (Internet Properties) go to the Advanced tab and uncheck the boxes associated with the following items from the Security Settings:
   Check for publisher’s certificate revocation
   Check for server certificate revocation*
   

   

3. Click Apply to save the changes, then restart your computer to allow the changes to take effect.

If the error is still appearing after the next startup, move down to the next method below.

Method 3: Whitelisting the website

Another way to go around preventing the identity of this website or the integrity of this connection cannot be verified error prompt from appearing without disabling the server & publisher revocation checks is to whitelist the site that is triggering the issue.

But this method is only applicable if you are aware of the website that is causing the security warning.

If you are aware of the website that needs to be whitelisted, follow the guide down below:

1. Press Windows key + R to open up a Run dialog box. Then, type “inetcpl.cpl” and press Enter to open the Internet Options (Internet Properties) window.

   

2. Inside the Internet Options (Internet Properties) window, go to the Security tab and click on the Trusted sites icon. Then, click on the Sites button.

   

3. In the Trusted sites window, type the website address in the box under Add this website to the zone, then click the Add button.

   

4. Once the website is whitelisted, click Apply and restart your machine.
5. See if the issue has been resolved at the next startup. If you’re still encountering the same error message, move down to the next method below.

Method 4: Lessening the security level

If Method 1 was not successful, you should try lessening the security level – This is reported to be effective if you’re encountering this issue when using Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge or a program from the Microsoft Office suite.

Several users in a similar situation have reported that the Security Alert was no longer occurring after they set the Security level to Medium. Here’s a quick guide on how to do this:

1. Press Windows key + R to open up a Run dialog Box. Then, type “inetcpl.cpl” and press Enter to open up Internet Options (Internet Properties).

   

2. Inside the Internet Properties screen, access the Security tab and set the Security level for this zone metric to Medium and hit Apply to save the changes.

   

3. Restart your machine and see if the identity of this website or the integrity of this connection cannot be verified error is still occurring starting with the next startup.