Maybe you know that HTTPS is the more secure version of theHTT protocol that you would use to accessthe web from a browser. But did you know that the S stands for Secure and thesecurity is provided by SSL encryption?The SSL protocol allows an application on your computer,like a web browser, to establish a secure connectionto a server. As an analogy, without SSL it's like the browser shoutingacross the room to the server, hey, server!Using SSL is like shouting in another language that only thebrowser and the server understand. So if some party puts snooping capability in your ISP serveror anywhere in between your machine and your emailservers, then they'd be able to snoop your email only if itwere not SSL encrypted. Once it's SSL encrypted, no other party will be able tounderstand your traffic, even if they are ableto intercept it. So always look for the S in HTTPS. By default, Gmail is always HTTPS. To make matters a little more confusing, SSL is sometimesreferred to as TLS. They are just different versions of essentially thesame protocol. Looking for HTTPS is the most important thing, but keepwatching for more of the details of how SSL works. To establish a secure connection, the client, forexample, your browser, and a server initiate a handshakeprocedure in which the client connects to the server and theserver sends back its identification in the form ofa digital certificate. The certificate contains the server name, the certificateauthority that signed the certificate, and the server'spublic encryption key. Have you ever received an SSL certificate warning?An SSL warning will sometimes appear in your browser whenyou try to connect to a server and something is wrong withthe digital certificate that the server presents to theclient at the time of the handshake. There are a number of reasons why this might happen. You might see a certificate name mismatch error at a hotelor airport or anywhere with a captive portal page. Sometimes you get an expired certificate warning. Check the expiration date on the certificate. If it just expired in the past day, it might be OK. Finally, you might see a warning about a self-signedcertificate or an unknown certificate authority. This might be OK for a very small site that doesn't wantto pay $50 a year. But you would not expect this from a big commercial site. If you see an invalid certificate warning for a wellknown site, then something is definitely wrong. Whenever you see a warning you should be extra careful. Happy surfing.
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