HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the most widely used protocol on the Internet at present. With the strengthening of people’s awareness of network security, HTTPS is more and more adopted. Whether it’s shopping sites, blogs, forums, etc., we’re protected by HTTPS, and even major browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox have marked all HTTP-based sites as unsafe.

Why is HTTPS more secure than HTTP? Before we can answer that question, we need to understand what HTTP and HTTPS are.

HTTP and HTTPS access procedures

Since the development of the Internet, HTTP has been the standard protocol for the transmission of information over the Internet. The information transferred can be documents, files, images, videos, etc., between computers on the Internet.

During the HTTP request process, there is no identification process between the client and the server. All data is transmitted in plaintext and “streaking” on the Internet, so it is easy to be attacked by hackers.

And HTTPS is actually HTTP with SSL (HTTP + SSL=HTTPS). When you see HTTPS in your browser’s address bar, it means that all communication with the site will be encrypted, making the whole access process more secure.

Why is HTTPS more secure than HTTP

The security of HTTPS is reflected in the following aspects:

  • Server authentication, through which the user can know that it is currently communicating with the corresponding server.

  • Data confidentiality. Other parties cannot understand the content of the data sent because the submitted data is encrypted.

  • Data integrity. The transmission carries Message Authentication Code (MAC) for Authentication, so the transmitted data will not be changed by the other party.

Let me give you an example. An HTTP request consists of multiple lines of http-compliant text, such as the following GET request:

GET/helloupyun. TXT HTTP / 1.1

User-agent: curl/7.73.0 libcurl/7.73.0 OpenSSL/ 1.1.lzlib /1.2.11

Host: www.upyun.com

Accept-Language: en

Requests are sent in plaintext. People who have a basic understanding of protocol commands and syntax can obtain and understand the meaning of the request by monitoring the process of sending the request. Therefore, the security of sending data such as passwords over HTTP is very low.

HTTPS, in contrast, uses SSL (or TLS) to encrypt HTTP requests and responses, so in the example above, someone monitoring the request would see a random string of numbers instead of readable text.

GsERHg9YDMpYk0VVDiRvw1H5miNieJeJ/FNUjgH0BmVAWII6+T4MnDwmCMZUI/orxP3HGwYCSIvyzS3MpmmSe4iaWKCOHH==

The standard security technology of SSL (Secure Socket Layer) used in the encryption process covers both asymmetric and symmetric keys.

Symmetric encryption Symmetric encryption is an encryption algorithm in which encryption and decryption use the same key.

The common encryption algorithms include DES, AES, and IDEA

Asymmetric encryption Asymmetric encryption uses two keys, the public key and the private key. The public key is used to encrypt the website account password and other data, and the private key is used to decrypt the data. The public key is distributed to anyone viewing the site, while the private key is owned only by the site server.

Currently, common asymmetric encryption algorithms include RSA, DSA, DH, etc.

Common suites, such as Chacha20-Poly1305, use both algorithms, where ChaCha20 stands for symmetric encryption and Poly1305 for identity authentication.

Referring to the RFC documentation, we can see that ChaCha20 provides 256-bit encryption strength, which is sufficient as a symmetric encryption algorithm to ensure HTTPS security.

In general, HTTPS is an encryption method that not only encrypts data compared to HTTP, but also gives websites a secure and reliable ID card.

Talk about the pros and cons of HTTPS

Overall, HTTPS has the following five advantages:

  • Maximize the security of data and transactions on the Web;

  • Encrypt sensitive or confidential user information;

  • Improve search engine rankings

  • Avoid the “unsafe” message in the browser.

  • Enhance users’ trust in the site.

In contrast, disadvantages are also necessary:

  • HTTPS takes a long time in the handshake phase, which affects the overall page loading speed.

  • More CPU cycles on the browser and server to encrypt/decrypt data;

  • SSL certificates generally need to pay a certain fee to obtain, and the cost is often not low;

  • By no means secure, HTTPS offers virtually no protection against a site attack or server hijacking.

Upgrade HTTP to HTTPS

How do I upgrade a website from HTTP to HTTPS? Compared with the conventional upgrade steps, Youpaiyun provides a set of more concise process, from SSL certificate purchase, management to deployment, three steps can be completed. At the same time, we cooperate with international top CA organizations, with rich certificate types and simple and convenient operation process.

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