The Ultimate Guide to HTTPS: What You Need to Know

In today's digital age, online security has become more important than ever. One of the most crucial factors in ensuring secure communication over the internet is the usage of HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure). In this article, we will understand what HTTPS is, how it works, and why it matters. Whether you are a website owner, an online shopper, a web developer, or simply a curious reader, this article will bring you the knowledge you need to navigate the world of HTTPS and stay safe online.

What is HTTPS?

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a secure version of HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) which is the foundation of the World Wide Web, which makes the internet accessible in this modern world. HTTP and HTTPS, both are application layer protocols that are designed for transmitting information from one internet connected device to another. They run on the top of other TCP/IP protocols. 

In simple words, HTTPS is just the same as HTTP but with an additional security provided by SSL/TLS encryption. It is a protocol for secure communication over the internet. The use of HTTPS ensures that any data sent over HTTPS cannot be tampered with or intercepted by any third party. This is why all banking websites use HTTPS instead of HTTP for secure communication between the client and bank server. 

What Role Does Encryption Play in HTTPS?

Encryption plays an important role in HTTPS. Encryption is what makes the connection secure. Encryption is used to protect the confidentiality and integrity of data transmission happening between client (a web browser) and server (where website data is stored). Encryption is required, because without it, an attacker can intercept, read and can modify the data transfer happening between the client and server using some tools made for man-in-the-middle attack. 

HTTPS achieves encryption through the use of combination of both symmetric as well as asymmetric encryption algorithms. When the client(browser) sends a connect (GET) request to the server via HTTPS, the server sends a TLS/SSL certificate to the client. The certificate includes the public key that the client uses to establish a secure connection with the server.

In establishing the secure connection, the client generates a random symmetric key that will be used for encrypting and decrypting the data. The client encrypts the symmetric which he generated using the server’s public so that only the server can decrypt it. Once the secure connection is established, all data exchanges take place using the encryption done via a symmetric key. The data is now broken into small packets by the server and then each data packet is individually encrypted and transmitted to the client over the network. This protocol ensures that no third party will be able to read the data without the symmetric key. 

Also, it protects the integrity of the data, which is done by adding digital signatures in each packet of data which the recipient(client) can verify to confirm that isn’t modified in the transit. So, we can say encryption plays an important role in providing confidentiality and integrity to the data transfer by using combination of symmetric and asymmetric key.

How Can You Tell If a Website is Using HTTPS?

We can tell if a website is using HTTPS or not by just looking at the URL. Check if the URL in your web browser or wherever you have stored is beginning with http:// or https://. If the website is using HTTPS, it will always start with https://, for example https://www.knowledgehut.com/, this starts with https, so it's using HTTPS as the main protocol for communication. 

Secondly, you can also tell if a website is using HTTPS or not by just looking for a padlock icon in the address bar. In most of the browsers like google chrome, they display a padlock icon in the address bar to indicate that you are exploring the website which is secured via HTTPS. You can also check the details of SSL/TLS certificate by clicking on the padlock icon. (As you can see in the attached picture.)

Also, sometimes it may be possible that the website you are visiting has HTTPS but you yourself have mistakenly sent a connection request via HTTP. It happens if you manually type a website URL and forget to use https in the beginning and as a result, you get connected via HTTP. This situation can be avoided by using a chrome extension, HTTPS Everywhere. Search google for more details about this extension.

Why is HTTPS Necessary?

HTTPS is necessary for several reasons which are explained below:

1. Data Security: HTTPS provides encryption of data which makes it difficult for any third party to intercept or modify the data in transit. It transfers all the data after encryption which makes it useless even if any attacker intercepts it since they won’t be able to decrypt that and it’s of no use to them, making the users data safe.
2. Authentication: HTTPS ensures that the website you are communicating with is the original website where you intended to communicate with and not a phishing website which is impersonating the website you wanted to communicate with. 
3. User Trust: HTTPS gives users a feeling of trust. It establishes trust between the users of the website that their data is safe as the website is using HTTPS and their data is safe from attackers.
4. Compliance: Many regulatory requirements make it mandatory to use HTTPS to protect sensitive data of users like personal identifiable information, financial information, health information, etc. 
5. SEO: HTTPS improves the SEO of the website. Search engines rank the website higher who uses HTTPS properly as per their documentation. 
6. Fast Speed: Websites with modern servers loads HTTPS faster than HTTP. This is not the case for all websites but in general, it is expected to load faster in comparison to HTTP.

What Happens If a Website Doesn’t Have HTTPS?

When we visit a website, the browser sends a request to the server hosting the website for sharing necessary files and data needed to display the page. This includes images, videos, text, and all other content types to be required. Now, when you enter any sensitive data such as your login credentials, banking details, or any other data, it is transmitted over a unsafe network from your device to the server.

If the website uses HTTPS, this transmission would have been encrypted, which makes it difficult for hackers to intercept the data in transit and use it for any malicious purpose. However, if website doesn’t use HTTPS, the information transmitted over the network is not encrypted. This means that it can be either intercepted or modified by any third party using some Man in The Middle attacks which can potentially lead your information to be used for any malicious purpose like identity theft, fraud or any other malicious purpose. 

Additionally, some browsers may display a warning message to users when accessing a website without HTTPS. This warning message creates a negative impact in the mind of users which makes them feel that your website is unsafe and decreases the trust in the user's minds. Sometimes, this can also create so much negative impact that some users may stop using your website and may shift to competitor website having HTTPS which can lead to loss of traffic and users too. 

Additionally, it can also lead to a fine on your company by any government compliance for not taking mandatory actions to protect user information, this can increase your losses or can even decrease the reputation of your company in the global market and in the user’s eyes too.

Real-world Case Scenario

Assume you are working as IT manager in a bank. You received a phone call from a customer that a big amount of money got deducted from his account which he hadn’t withdrawal. Now, Your IT team investigates and found out that the website is missing HTTPS means the data can be intercepted by any attacker. So, now your bank must face the consequences of not using HTTPS on your website. 

The consequences can be very serious like getting a fine from government authority for keeping the user’s data at risk, losing customers, lack of brand reputation, and a lot more. So, to avoid this kind of situation, prefer to be using HTTPS and regularly checking if it has been working perfectly and has not expired. Now, this situation may not have arisen if they had taken advice from a CEH. If you are also interested in learning Ethical Hacking, prefer taking any CEH Certification Course.

How to Enable HTTPS on Your Website?

Enabling HTTPS on a website is an easy task if you do everything step by step. The process is almost the same but may differ a little bit as different hosting works differently. The general process is almost similar for all, but you should read the official documentation of the hosing provider for exact steps of doing so. The general steps to enable HTTPS on a website are as following:

1. Obtain an SSL/TLS certificate from any trusted authority - Its totally your own choice if you wanted to go for paid ones like GoDaddy or free ones like let’s encrypt. Also, many hosting plans include a free SSL, so check if you already have an SSL included in your hosting plan, don’t purchase another one.
2. Install the certificate on your web server - The process of doing this depends on your hosting provider, so do read the official documentation of the hosting provider and repeat the process stated in the documentation.
3. Configure your web server to use HTTPS – This involves modifying your site’s configuration files to redirect all the traffic to HTTPS instead of HTTP. 
4. Test your site to ensure that HTTPS is working perfectly – You can use any online tool for this like Qualys SSL Labs to check if everything’s working correctly.
5. Keep renewing SSL certificate from time to time – It is totally your responsibility to renew the SSL certificate on time and before anything wrong happens.

Conclusion

In today’s digital world, Enabling HTTPS is a necessity for all, no matter if your website deals with sensitive information or not. Now, HTTPS has become standard in the digital era. Lack of HTTPS on your website doesn’t even make it an easy target for attackers but would also harm you in multiple ways, like user behavior, lack of traffic, SEO ranking, etc. Now, we have already understood the importance of HTTPS and the harms it can have if we didn’t add it. So, add HTTPS to your website in the beginning itself, also don’t forgot to test if everything is working perfectly. You can go for KnowledgeHut courses on Cyber Security and get familiar with the latest cyber security trends and learn directly from industry-experts driving the cyber security revolutions.