According to a recent security study, low assurance digital certificates have become a new gateway for hackers to get to your personal data, by means of a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack.

The MITM attack consists of a hacker putting themselves between two parties in a dialogue, such as a person and their bank. Once in place they effectively control the conversation to get login credentials or other, far more valuable information.

Generally, untrustworthy certificates will be halted by error messages or warnings that throw up red flags for potential problems, at least to the more internet-savvy. However, more crafty hackers will often add a legitimately issued certificate to the mix, making even the most secure browsers continue on their merry way, as if nothing has happened.

So how can you keep yourself safe online? Well, at time of press there isn’t any kind of listed fix, but just watch yourself and your information. Acting supremely paranoid can’t hurt, can it?