It’s been a few months since Google announced that Google Chrome would start flagging websites not using https. Now, the day of reckoning has come. Google Chrome will now start showing users if the website their visiting is secure or not secure. When a website uses the HTTP protocol, it does not encrypt the traffic between your computer and the server. This could allow bad actors to intercept the information and potentially do harm to your device. Or worse, steal sensitive data.
In the image below, you can see how Google Chrome 67 handled HTTP websites. You can also see how Chrome 68 will be handling it going forward.
When you load a website over plain HTTP, your connection to the site is not encrypted. This means anyone on the network can look at any information going back and forth, or even modify the contents of the site before it gets to you. With HTTPS, your connection to the site is encrypted, so eavesdroppers are locked out, and information (like passwords or credit card info) will be private when sent to the site.
Chrome’s “not secure” warning helps you understand when the connection to the site you’re on isn’t secure and, at the same time, motivates the site’s owner to improve the security of their site. Since our announcement nearly two years ago, HTTPS usage has made incredible progress. We’ve found in our Transparency Report that:
- 76 percent of Chrome traffic on Android is now protected, up from 42 percent
- 85 percent of Chrome traffic on ChromeOS is now protected, up from 67 percent
- 83 of the top 100 sites on the web use HTTPS by default, up from 37
We started using the HTTPS protocol last year and it’s honestly one of the easiest and best improvements you can make to any website. It’s also strongly encouraged as Google is expected to rank sites not using HTTPS lower.
What do you think of Google’s move? Let us know in the comments below or on GooglePlus, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”https://www.blog.google/products/chrome/milestone-chrome-security-marking-http-not-secure/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Google[/button]
