Navigator Security Certificates

[David Pincus]

At the end of 1999 the Certificate Authority for Netscape Navigator 3.xx
expired, so that the window that pops up when you want to open a
secure link says "...one of the Certificate Authorities that identifies this site
has expired". I'm using Communicator 4.7 now, but just out of curiosity
I logged into a secure site with the old Navigator 3.04 and still got the
"blue key" to appear in the lower left corner, which supposedly means
that you have an encrypted connection between yourself and the website
you're logged onto.

Is this really true or not? Can you really still have secure communications
using the older Navigator version 3, even if its Certificate Authority has
expired?

Thank you.

Regards,

David Pincus