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March 05, 2009
TIP OF THE DAY!!! (SECURITY)
Hi Everyone
An answer to a question I received recently and thought worthy of a wider audience.
Maybe you know this, If so apologies. Some people I've spoken to had no idea !! Okay, what this info doesn't state clearly enough is that most websites have the address beginning http:// it's the ordering page that needs to begin https://
Kind Regards
Steve H
FIRST, MANY PEOPLE ARE UNAWARE OF
**The main difference between http:// and https://
HTTP stands for HyperText 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 browser using the regular 'insecure' 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.
I hope you understand why this is so important?
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, then there's no way you should enter sensitive information like a credit card number.
Please remember always better to be safe than sorry.
Posted by Steve Haddock at March 5, 2009 03:38 PM
