Saturday, January 24, 2009

The difference between http and https....

A friend sent this to me, something I wasn't aware of! So just in case you didn't know either....I thought it might be helpful.

1. Computer Coup

What is the difference between http:// and https://? It's all about keeping you secure.

HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transport Protocol, which is just a fancy way of saying it's a protocol(a language, in a manner of speaking) For information to be passed back and forth between web servers and clients. The important thing is the letter S which makes the difference between HTTP and HTTPS.

The S(big surprise) stands for "Secure". If you visit a website or webpage, and look at the address in the web browser, it will likely begin with the following: http://

This means that the website is talking to your brower using the regular 'unsecure' language. In other words, it is possible for someone to "eavesdrop" on your computer's conversation with the website. If you fill out a form on the website, someone might see the information you send to that site.

This is why you never ever enter your credit card number in an http website! But if the web address begins with https://, that basically means your coomputer is talking to the website in a secure code that no one can eavesdrop on.
You understand why this is so important right? If a website ever asks you to enter your credit card information, you should automatically look to see if the web address begins with https://. If it doesn't, there's no way you're going to enter sensitive information like a credit card number.

PASS IT ON(You may save someone a lot of grief).