HTTP and HTTPS – Do YOU Know The Difference ?
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“HTTP” & “HTTPS” – Do YOU Know The Difference ? Once in a while, there is something that comes down the pike that is of real importance.What is the difference between http and https?Don’t know how many of you are aware of this difference, but it is worth passing this info on.**The main difference between http:// and https:// is it’s all about keeping you secure** HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol.The S (big surprise) stands for “Secure”. If you visit a website or web page, 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 browser using the regular ‘unsecured 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 computer 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, You should NEVER enter sensitive information….such as a credit card number, SS# etc. PASS IT ON (You may save someone a lot of grief). |
It’s important to note that SSL, or a Secure Socket Layer (from which the S in https comes), is something most web hosts make you pay for. It provides extra security for your website, and good websites will actually go pretty far out of their way to get that extra little s.
It’s also important that that only prevents people from spying on the website. There are a number of other ways people can target a website to gain access to sensitive information.