What does "HTTPS - secure HTTP over SSL" mean?.?

Question

I see that on some sites, what exactly does it mean?

So if I am downloading a music file, no one can see the file or decipher it? My friend was caught by the music industry and was sued.

Answer 1

It means the information being sent and received is encrypted so nobody else can see what you are typing or reading.

Answer 2

HTTPS


- HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer, or HTTP over SSL) is a Web protocol developed by Netscape and built into its browser that encrypts and decrypts user page requests as well as the pages that are returned by the Web server. HTTPS is really just the use of Netscape's Secure Socket Layer (SSL) as a sublayer under its regular HTTP application layering. (HTTPS uses port 443 instead of HTTP port 80 in its interactions with the lower layer, TCP/IP.) SSL uses a 40-bit key size for the RC4 stream encryption algorithm, which is considered an adequate degree of encryption for commercial exchange.

Suppose you use a Netscape browser to visit a Web site to view their online catalog. When you're ready to order, you will be given a Web page order form with a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that starts with https://. When you click "Send," to send the page back to the catalog retailer, your browser's HTTPS layer will encrypt it. The acknowledgement you receive from the server will also travel in encrypted form, arrive with an https:// URL, and be decrypted for you by your browser's HTTPS sublayer.

HTTPS and SSL support the use of X.509 digital certificates from the server so that, if necessary, a user can authenticate the sender. SSL is an open, nonproprietary protocol that Netscape has proposed as a standard to the World Wide Consortium (W3C). HTTPS is not to be confused with S-HTTP, a security-enhanced version of HTTP developed and proposed as a standard by EIT.

Answer 3

Very simply, it means that the data exchanged from your browser to the server is encrypted. If someone eavesdrops and reads the data flowing on the network, they'll only see encrypted stuff. They would have to decrypt it to see the actual contents, and this is not an easy task.

Without HTTPS (or plain old HTTP), the data you submit through form is sent in clear text, e.g. you name, password, address, everything you would input in a web form would be sent easily readable by a user "sniffing" or eavesdropping on your network.

HTTPS doesn't in any way encrypt the address of the web site you visited, it only encrypts the data contained in the Web page as well as the data in the forms when you submit them.

Answer 4

which is syntactically identical to the http: scheme normally used for accessing resources using HTTP. Using an https: URL indicates that HTTP is to be used, but with a different default port (443) and an additional encryption/authentication layer between HTTP and TCP. This system was developed by Netscape Communications Corporation to provide authentication and encrypted communication and is widely used on the World Wide Web for security-sensitive communication, such as payment transactions.

Answer 5

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol

Answer 6

HTTP = hypertext transport protocol
is the protocol used to move web pages around

SSL = secure socket layer

means that the protocol is going through an encryption layer so that nobody that grabs the data can read it.

Answer 7

Security using SSL encryption. Usually you see this on Ecommerce sites.

Answer 8

If your downloading music, there is nothing you can do to erase this except destroying the whole hard drive. Programs that claim so erase the files to computers but the gov. has electron microscope to determine whats on the hard drive.

Answer 9

Security my boy, security...