What Does HTTP Mean?

 

HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the most widely used protocol in the world. HTTP is the protocol used to view web pages on the internet.

 

How Does HTTP Work?

 

When you type an address such as google.com, you will see that HTTP is automatically added to the beginning of the web address and shows that it is using HTTP to view this web page. In standard HTTP, all information is sent in clear text. Thus, information flows between your computer and that web server, and that information is transmitted in clear text over the public internet.

 

Who Invented HTTP and When?

 

The HTTP Hyper-information environment, the Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol that changed our era and still continues to change, was started to be developed by Tim Berners Lee at CERN in 1989. This engineer named Tim Berners Lee, who also invented the www in the same years, is also the person who invented HTML.

 

Is HTTP Secure?

 

Because the texts are transmitted in clear text, they are vulnerable to hackers, hackers, etc. If you're just browsing regular websites, this might not be a big deal if sensitive data like passwords or credit card information isn't used. However, if you were to type in sensitive personal data such as your name, address, phone number and passwords or credit card information, that sensitive data comes from your computer or phone and then has to surf the public internet to reach that web server. And that makes your data vulnerable. Because a hacker anywhere on the Internet can watch or listen to this data as it is being transferred and capture your information. In this case, the hacker steals personal information while surfing the internet. In other words, sensitive data such as your name, phone number, address and credit card information. So this poses a serious problem in terms of security. To eliminate this security problem, experts developed HTTPS.

 

What is HTTPS?

 

HTTP + S (Secure) = HTTPS (Hyper Text Transform Protocol Secure) so this is HTTP with a security measure. And Secure HTTP encrypts data received from HTTP.

This ensures that all data transferred over the internet between computers and servers is safe by making it impossible to read. And it does this by using encryption algorithms to scramble the transmitted data.

 

 For example, if you are going to a web page where you need to enter your password and sensitive data such as your credit card information, you will see an 'S' appear at the end of the HTTP in the web address that appears in the URL. This 'S' means you are currently using secure HTTP and sensitive data will be transferred and protected.

 

In addition to the added 'S', many web browsers will also display a lock icon in the address bar to indicate that secure HTTP i.e. HTTPS is being used. Therefore, when we use secure HTTP, all data containing any sensitive data you enter in the inputs will no longer be transmitted as clear text, but in an encrypted form, circulating on the internet and transferred to the web server.

While this data is surfing the internet, it is sent in an encrypted form that is unreadable. Therefore, if a hacker or a hacker tries to steal this data, they will get a lot of meaningless encrypted data. Because your data is now encrypted and hacker can't crack the passwords either.

 

Secure HTTP Protocols

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)

What is SSL?

 

Secure HTTP now protects data using one of two protocols. One of these protocols, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or Secure Sockets Layer, is a protocol used to provide security on the internet.

 

The working logic of SSL is to use public key encryption to secure the data. So when a computer connects to a website that uses SSL, the computer's web browser will ask the website to identify itself. The web server will then send a copy of the SSL certificate to the computer.

In this case, you can think of the SSL certificate as a small digital certificate used to authenticate the website itself. It is basically used to inform your computer or phone that the web page you are visiting is safe.

Your web browser will then check to make sure the certificate is correct. Sends a response to the web server when validation is done. The web server will then respond with an acknowledgment. In this way, the SSL session can continue. After all these steps are completed, the encrypted data can now be exchanged between your computer and the web server.

 

TLS (Transport Layer Security)

What is TLS?

 

Another protocol that secure HTTP can use is called TLS. TLS (Transport Layer Security) is the latest industry standard encryption protocol.

Successor to SSL and based on the same specifications. Just like SSL, it also authenticates the server, client and encrypts the data. We can now say that many websites use secure HTTP, regardless of whether sensitive data is exchanged or not.

 

Google Requires HTTPS

 

This is because Google marks websites that are not protected by SSL as unsafe. And at the same time, Google states that it will openly penalize and throw back websites that do not have SSL protection during Google search. And that's why now when you visit many web pages, you will see that secure HTTP is used, even if there is no exchange of sensitive data.

 

To summarize again, in order to understand the use of secure HTTP, you should be typing the web address, an 'S' at the end of HTTP in the URL bar and writing HTTPS. It will also have a lock mark next to it that the web browser has approved the certificate.