7.0

5 HTTP over SSL (HTTPS)

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer, or HTTP over SSL) is a Web protocol used to

encrypt and decrypt user page requests as well as the pages that are returned by the Web server.

SSL is an open, non proprietary protocol that Netscape has proposed as a standard to the World Wide

Consortium (W3C). HTTPS is not to be confused with S-HTTP, a security-enhanced version of HTTP developed

and proposed as a standard by EIT.

When you visit a web site with a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that starts with https:// your browser's

HTTPS layer will encrypt information send from the client to the server. The acknowledgment you receive from

the server will also travel in encrypted form, arrive with an https:// URL, and be decrypted for you by your

browser's HTTPS sublayer.

HTTPS and SSL support the use of X.509 digital certificates from the server so that a user can authenticate

the sender.