Easy! IT | WEB | HTTPS

This article is a rough explanation of Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure(HTTPS).

Everything might be not exactly correct in this article but it’s very useful for beginners to understand IT terms. If you want to learn IT but you don’t have any experience to work in the IT industry, I wish it helps you to understand IT. And I hope this article makes you study IT more.

Let’s start our 3 minutes lesson!

What is Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure(HTTPS)?

HTTPS is an abbreviation for Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
HTTPS is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
HTTPS protects the communications between a client and a server against eavesdropping and tampering.

If you don’t know the basic web technology, I suggest you read the following articles before you read this article.

Easy! IT | WEB | World Wide Web | Japan Teams

Easy! IT | WEB | HyperText Transfer Protocol | Japan Teams

Easy! IT | WEB | HTTP Authentication | Japan Teams

Easy! IT | WEB | Basic access authentication | Japan Team

1. The problem on HTTP

HTTP is the transport protocol. Clients(users) request content from their web browsers and the web servers respond to their requests.

The basic HTTP communication

1. HTTP request

When a user wants to check the webpage, he uses a web browser (a client). He sends requests via a client.

2. HTTP response

Then after few steps(such as HTTP authentication), the WEB server gives the user the content that the user wants if the server accepts the request.

If a user uses a credit card with HTTP

When a user wants to buy something at an online shop, he sometimes needs to register a credit card. If he communicates with a server via HTTP, it’s easy for hackers to steal credit card information with eavesdrop or tamper. Because HTTP doesn’t make data encrypted. So HTTPS was developed for authentication of the accessed website, protection of the privacy, and integrity of the exchanged data.

**It was easy for huckers to eavesdrop and tamper.**

2.HTTPS is more secure than HTTP

In HTTPS, the communication protocol is encrypted using Transport Layer Security (it was used formerly Secure Sockets Layer), called TLS/SSL. The Uniform Resource Identifier scheme HTTPS has the same usage syntax as the HTTP scheme. However, HTTPS signals the browser to use an added encryption layer of SSL/TLS to protect the traffic.

HTTPS makes data encrypted in **Transport Layer**.

Therfore,

The protocol is also referred to as HTTP over TLS, or HTTP over SSL.

HTTPS is used for secure communication over a computer network and is widely used on the Internet.

HTTPS is important over insecure networks. The user trusts that the protocol’s encryption layer (SSL/TLS) is sufficiently secure against eavesdroppers. So you should be careful to use free Wi-Fi(public Wi-Fi) because everyone can discover sensitive information unencrypted via HTTP.

I’ll explain more details in other articles, especially about security.