Secure Transcription

HTTP

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. When you type any web address in your web browser, your browser acts as a client, and the computer having the requested information acts as a server. When client requests for any information from the server, it uses HTTP protocol to do so. The server responds back to the client after the request completes. The response comes in the form of web page which you see just after typing the web address and press ?Enter?.

Basic Architecture:

Following diagram shows a very basic architecture of a web application and depicts where HTTP sits:

The HTTP protocol is a request/response protocol based on client/server based architecture where web browser, robots and search engines, etc. act like HTTP clients and Web server acts as server.

HTTPS

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a combination of two different protocols. It is more secure way to access the web. It is combination of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS) and SSL/TLS protocol. It is more secure way to sending request to server from a client, also the communication is purely encrypted which means no one can know what you are looking for. This kind of communication is used for accessing those websites where security is required. Banking websites, payment gateway, emails, and corporate sector websites are some great examples where HTTPS protocols are used.

For HTTPS connection, public key trusted and signed certificate is required for the server. These certificate comes either free or it costs few dollars depends on the signing authority. There is one other method for distributing certificates. Site admin creates certificates and loads in the browser of users. Now when user requests information to the web server, his identity can be verified easily.

Here are some major differences between HTTP and HTTPS:

HTTPS is more secure, and that is why we are using it.

HTTPS is significantly more secure than http. The main three differences are http doesn't encrypt. https encrypts all the data going to the server. In either case someone can intercept the data between you and the server, but the encryption with https ensures that they can't do anything with it.

http doesn't care what server you connect to. https verifies the server against the certificate. If you double click on the pad lock icon in your browser you can see who the server belongs to and be confident that your card details are going to the right people. Better than that if the server address and certificate disagree, your browser will warn you that they don't match and gives you the opportunity to leave before you've given any information away.

http pages are stored on your computer and internet caches. The pages load faster, but they are stored on systems that you potentially don't have control over (your ISP's caching proxy or that internet cafe computer for example). https pages aren't cached anywhere. Therefore there are no copies of your data hanging around to be retrieved later.