3.4 How secure is your browsing?
This section is part of the amber and green pathways.
Web browsers have made it easy to determine if a website is using TLS/SSL by:
- Making all secure addresses begin ‘https://’ (rather than ‘http://’) with the s standing for ‘secure’. Examples include Gmail, at https://mail.google.com/ [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ; Google defaults to Google Safe Search at https://www.google.com/, which means that your search requests and results cannot be seen by others.
- Showing a closed padlock symbol in or near the top of your browser window.
Activity 3 Your own browsing security
Timing: Allow about 15 minutes
Visit a website that you use regularly (it could be this one!) and find a page that you would expect to use a secure network connection. A common example would be your webmail account or online banking website. Use your browser’s help feature and click on the padlock icon to find out about its meaning.
Research browsing security online. You might find that your browser shows different versions of the padlock to highlight potential problems with the secure connection.