What Is HTTPS?

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∟HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)

∟What Is HTTPS?

This section provides a quick introduction to HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) - A combination of HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and SSL (Secure Socket Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security).

What is HTTPS? HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is HTTP over SSL or TLS. HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is an application layer protocol used to transfer HTTP requests and HTTP responses for Web based applications. SSL (Secure Socket Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security) is a communication layer protocol used to encrypt application data prior to transmission and decrypting it upon arrival to ensure that no one else can read the original application data.

All financial Web sites are using HTTPS now, to protect your financial information being transmitted between your computer and the financial institute server. Since your financial information will be transmitted through many gateway computers, So you don't have to worry about someone else is looking at your information on a gateway computer, like your Internet service provider's server. All they can see is encrypted data, not the original data.

There are several technical notes about HTTPS:

The default port number is 443 for HTTPS. Port 80 is still reserved for HTTP.
"https://" must be used as Web address prefix to invoke the HTTPS protocol in Web browsers.
A single Web site may run both HTTP and HTTPS servers: HTTP to serve non-secured contents and HTTPS to serve secured contents.
Web browsers will give warnings when switching a secured page to a non-secured page.
The HTTPS server must have a public key signed by a certificate authority.
Web browsers will give errors when a HTTPS server provides a certificate that cannot be validated against any certificate authorities.
Web browsers do allow you to review public key certificates received from HTTPS servers.