‘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 identity of this web site or the integrity of this connection cannot be verified
The identity of this website or the integrity of this connection cannot be verified

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:

  • The site’s Digital Certificate has expired or revoked – This is quite a common occurrence with old websites that are not being actively maintained. The issue is mostly reported to occur with Internet Explorer or with programs that are running scripts that involve IE.
  • The details in the certificate do not match or it’s issuing authority is untrusted – The warning prompt that you’re seeing is essentially the OS attempt to tell you that it has found some discrepancies with the website that is being accessed.
  • Security Level is set to High – This can occur when using Internet Explorer or Microsoft Office with the Security Level set to High. Several users have managed to get the issue resolved entirely by bringing the security level down and reinstalling the website certificate.

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.

Trusting the certificate
Trusting the 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.
    Run dialog: inetcpl.cpl
    Run dialog: inetcpl.cpl
  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*

    Unchecking the boxes associated with publisher & server certificate revocation
    Unchecking the boxes associated with publisher & 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.
    Run dialog: inetcpl.cpl
    Run dialog: inetcpl.cpl
  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.
    Go to Security srcset=
    Trusted sites> Sites” width=”431″ height=”556″> Go to Security > Trusted sites > Sites
  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.
    Adding the website to the list of trusted websites
    Adding the website to the list of trusted websites
  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).
    Run dialog: inetcpl.cpl
    Run dialog: inetcpl.cpl
  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.
    Setting the Security level for this zone to Medium
    Setting the Security level for this zone to Medium
  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.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kevin Arrows


Kevin Arrows is a highly experienced and knowledgeable technology specialist with over a decade of industry experience. He holds a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) certification and has a deep passion for staying up-to-date on the latest tech developments. Kevin has written extensively on a wide range of tech-related topics, showcasing his expertise and knowledge in areas such as software development, cybersecurity, and cloud computing. His contributions to the tech field have been widely recognized and respected by his peers, and he is highly regarded for his ability to explain complex technical concepts in a clear and concise manner.