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Camas city websites not secure?

It was just brought to our attention through a news tip that some of the city's websites, including the two separate Lake/Everett roundabout project websites - Found at /LakeRoad (original) and lakeroadconstruction (second) - do not use HTTPS. It has not been made clear publicly why the city incurred the cost and confusion of a second project website for the same Lake/Everett project, especially puzzling when the original website has already been distributed and discussed for almost a year at this point?

HTTPS is the more secure type of website and every reputable company who's site you've visited for years now uses HTTPS. Outside of being insecure, not switching to HTTPS now has secondary impacts like lowering your webpage's ranking in search results like Google - which might be why a google search for "lake road construction" does not result in a link to cityofcamas.us/lakeroadconstruction, (on the first seven pages we checked at least). It can also make web pages entirely inaccessible in some browsers.

This article goes into this idea a bit. It's from a technology news site from back in 2018 when Google was first deciding to seriously enforce this needed enhancement that most had adopted, even back then. Back then, in July 2018, Google started to mark all unencrypted HTTP websites as “not secure,” in user's browsers (as you can see in the attached image when accessing city websites).

Who is missing the information on these pages due to the insecure management? And what is the city leaving us vulnerable to with this oversight?

2 comments

2 Comments

Phil Williams

Apr 03, 2020

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By the way, look at these town's websites and look at ours.

We're paying millions to communications consultants over the years and we don't have a decent website next to towns 1/12th our size? Washougal's website looks great on initial glance and they have 10k less citizens than Camas. Our city's website would be a middling attempt in 1996 - why does it take this long for a city like Camas to value it's citizen's enough to invest in clear, modern communications?

Our council members talk about how we are going to attract large technology companies? You run a 1996 website and use HTTP - why would anyone who learned what council knows about technology as a collective body by the time they were 12 probably, trust you to understand and support their needs as a technological leader. The answer is they wouldn't and that's why they are leaving. You also can't record public meetings worth a hoot and you have Logitech - one of the world's leading video/audio conferencing technology companies in your backyard. You're either too stubborn to admit you're outside your capacity or you're not able to convince your own neighbor to help you shore that deficit.

Spending just five minutes on Ridgefield's website would make me think about moving there. Does anyone know about the ClearGov finance SW they use for their financials. Looks intriguing?

https://ridgefieldwa.us/government/city-departments/finance-department/cleargov/

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LAST UPDATED: 3/31/20