I don't even know what category this should be because I am just user who is getting a Cannot Verify Server Identify message on my iPad.
It says "The identity of "tartator[.]com" cannot be verified". It pops up no matter what I am doing.
I've searched online to find out how to eliminate it and I've followed some of the suggestions (like rebooting, making sure I've installed updates, etc.) I searched all 10 of my email addresses from 3 ISPs and tartator[.]com doesn't appear in any of them, nor is it in my apps or my address book. I checked Is It Down? and that URL returned a 404 Error.
I particularly do not want to delete and reinstall all the email names.
I found Let's Encrypt by looking in the Details of the message.
Would someone please suggest something to help me? Thank you.
Can you explain a bit more about when you get this error. When trying to visit websites? Use Apps?
Let’s Encrypt is a certificate authority that is widely used, and we aren’t able to help with errors on devices. We can provide help to people who own or operate websites, but it doesn’t sound like that’s what you’re asking for.
I don’t have a more specific place for you to get help, except generic technical help like at an Apple Store or other IT helpdesk.
As far as I can tell, this is some kind of ad site which is most likely used by some app installed on your iPad to try to download ads (that are then displayed within the app). I don't know how to tell which app, though.
The people who maintain the site are apparently neglecting maintenance of their site, and so causing this error.
Echoing @mcpherrinm, maybe you can ask on an Apple support forum or channel about how to determine which app is making those requests to the broken site.
Thank you for trying to answer. It pops up at all sorts of times. I believe I was reading the Wall Street Journal digital paper when I got the one that pushed me over the edge to track it down. But It comes up when I am doing my NYT puzzles and many other things.
Thank you for your help. The fact that it is some kind of ad site is most helpful. I'll try to figure out what might be trying to load ads. I really appreciate the help I've found here, especially considering that I am an interloper into a technical support for people who create websites.
I did a quick lookup of this domain. It seems to be associated with adserving redirect chains for malware. the domain itlself is listed with a malware warning in a handful of projects. the domain appears to be associated with a widespread malware attack from 2023 that infected CMS websites with a javascript malware payload. the domain seems to exclusively host phishing sites and scams.
most likely, some app is requesting a page from a first domain, which is triggering a chain of redirects, in which this domain is either an intermediate or final step. if this is happening within a compromised javascript payload, the initial domains are almost certainly obfuscated.
considering this is on ios, it is probably happening in a background app activity. most likely this would either be in a safari tab, or an app that is ad supported.
in any event, consider it fortunate the domain currently has a compromised certificate - that has stopped the app from continuing down the redirect chain.
I've mostly worked in publishing and advertising, so expected this.
My favorite weird scam was when - while at a publisher - one of our ad agencies placed an order through us for a daylong sponsorship. The ads were part of an existing campaign, they were just sending in some new sizes. Our team takes their doubleclick code, tosses it into our doubleclick account (which is how both sides got metrics at the time), did a visual test, and everything was great. A few days later we find out that hackers compromised their systems, posed as their team online and on the phone after-hours, and immediately swiped out the creative for a "super diet mango pills" scam. I think the ads had gone through about 15-20 redirects and iframes before finally serving the mango-pills scam. It was impossible to track down anyone or anything for liability purposes. The intermediate sites/networks were a mix of compromised systems, in countries with no actionable legal options, or real sites with fake accounts tied to stolen credit cards.