Our businesses, finances, and many of our social interactions have gone digital. People with malicious intentions have seen this move to digital and have used it to gather large amounts of private data.

There are two main ways that website companies use to protect your data while it’s traveling the web;  HTTPS authentication and SSL encryption.

HTTP – The Foundation of the Web

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol – Secure) is the foundation of almost everything we do on the web. The idea of clicking a link and being taken somewhere else is what started the web in the first place. 

The technology that made this possible was HTTP. The secure version of this protocol (HTTPS) uses a secure certificate to verify the identity of the web server you want to access. Each certificate is unique and only one web server can use it.

Your browser uses this certificate to make sure that you don’t unknowingly access an “imposter” web server that could mislead you into giving it sensitive information.

Scrambling Your Data from Prying Eyes

SSL encryption is used along with HTTP to scramble your data while it is moving to and from a web server. This protects your data from what is called a “man-in-the-middle” attack.

This attack is exactly what it sounds like. If someone uses special software to spy on your internet traffic while it is being sent to and from a web server, they could see all of your personal data.

Not using encryption would be like writing your password on a postcard and then sending it in the mail. Anyone could read your password as it was being sent to the recipient and use it to access your information.

SSL secures your data using a technique called encryption. Encryption uses advanced mathematics and physics, so we won’t get into all the details. But encryption scrambles your internet traffic into something unreadable by anyone unless they have the keys to unscramble the data.

Even if someone does spy on your data while it is in transit, they won’t see anything except unreadable gibberish.

HTTPS verifies the identity of the web server you want to access to prevent you from accessing a malicious computer. SSL scrambles and protects your data while it is in transit so only the person with the right “keys” can read it.

Google Wants Web Traffic to Be Secure

Google recently began to label all websites that don’t use HTTPS as ‘not secure.’ But what does this mean for you? 

The Chrome browser (owned by Google) is the most used web browser in the world and Google is the most used search engine. 

If your website is labeled as “not secure” by these two large services, it is likely to affect the amount of traffic that comes to your website.

You Can Be Confident With TherapySites

TherapySites follows best practice to ensure your website is protected using these two security protocols. You can be sure that your personal data and the data of your clients are both safe and secure.

Do you have a question this article didn’t answer? Contact a TherapySites website specialist today. We would be more than glad to help you.