TIME HAS COME TO CONVERT TO HTTPS

If you haven’t switched your website from the HTTP prefix to HTTPS, now would be a good time. Google has announced in July 2018 that its popular Chrome browser will mark all HTTP websites as “NOT SECURE” in the address bar.

And we all know that we don’t want to make Google mad. A Google search turning up the dreaded “NOT SECURE” warning is now affecting website rankings. You may have been on page 1 before, but a HTTP site may now result in a one-way ticket to pages 3 or 4.

Chrome currently marks HTTPS-encrypted sites with a green lock icon and “Secure” sign. The Chrome team says 81 percent of the top 100 sites on the web are now HTTPS.

HTTPS encryption — which requires the purchase of an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate — protects the channel between your browser and the website you’re visiting, ensuring no one in the middle can tamper with the traffic or spy on what you’re doing. Without that encryption, someone with access to your router or ISP could intercept information sent to websites or inject malware into otherwise legitimate pages.

Let’s let Google explain: “HTTPS doesn’t just block misuse of your website. It’s also a requirement for many cutting-edge features and an enabling technology for app-like capabilities. HTTPS helps prevent intruders from tampering with the communications between your websites and your users’ browsers. Intruders include intentionally malicious attackers, and legitimate but intrusive companies, such as ISPs or hotels that inject ads into pages.

“Intruders exploit every unprotected resource that travels between your websites and your users. Images, cookies, scripts, HTML … they’re all exploitable. Intrusions can occur at any point in the network, including a user’s machine, a Wi-Fi hotspot, or a compromised ISP, just to name a few.”

HTTPS has also become much easier to implement through automated services like Let’s Encrypt. Google points to its own Lighthouse tool as a way to migrate your website to HTTPS.

Estep Media Solutions has been designing websites with the SSL certificate and HTTPS prefix for nearly two years. Need help converting your site to HTTPS? Give us a call at 614-306-9378 or email feedback@estepmediasolutions.com.