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Even grown-ups forget to renew SSL certificates

May 31, 2022.

Spotify.

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Earlier this week, Spotify experienced a major outage on Megaphone, its podcast hosting platform, due to an SSL certificate that wasn’t renewed on time. This tool, which inserts dynamic ads in episodes, hosts some of the most popular shows. The disruption also affected users of Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, two services that rely on Megaphone to distribute shows. Spotify acquired Megaphone in December 2020 for USD 235 million to rope off its share of the podcast market. The company didn’t comment as to the reasons for this incident.

As most HTTP traffic now uses the SSL/TSL encryption protocol, timely renewal of the certificate is critical to ensure that online services function smoothly. Certificates currently issued are valid for 398 days, or about thirteen months, whereas before September 2020, they used to last three years.

The Verge, Ariel Shapiro, “Massive podcast outage caused by Spotify’s failure to renew security certificate.”

2022-05-31