Right. I've visited Ted's site in the past, and had no certificate warnings. Now, suddenly, I am getting warnings. So isn't that the exact scenario in which I should be very suspicious?
It's just a blog; I'm not submitting anything, but still it's an indicator that something fishy might be going on.
- protected from alteration of the data in transit without either end's knowledge
and, IF you have a means to authenticate the owner of the certificate outside of the regular certificate signing process
- protection from impersonation of the other end of the connection