How to secure HTTP requests ?

In this article, we will learn about the various secure HTTP and what are their advantages.

The term HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It is basically used as a secure communication protocol over the Internet to maintain authenticity, integrity, and the confidentiality of the user's private information that can be misused over the Internet. There are basically two types of HTTP protocols that exist over the Internet including - HTTP and HTTPS. Here, HTTPS is the more secure version of the protocol as it stands for the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. The normal HTTP is relatively less secure than the highest-end HTTPS because it is not able to maintain the confidentiality of the data of the users and it can be easily hacked by attackers for the stealing of the user's data.

The biggest difference between the HTTP and the HTTPS protocol is that the more secure version of HTTPS uses the TLS (Transport Layer Security) along with the SSL (Secure sockets layer) which ensures more security and confidentiality to the data of the users. Also, the above certifications like TLS and SSL are not promised in the normal level HTTP protocol. The HTTP protocol has an http:// in its URL (Uniform Resource Locator) while the HTTPS protocol has an https:// in its URL.

The biggest difference that one can notice between an HTTP and an HTTPS website while visiting the web browser is the lock icon that occurs on the URL tab which means that the particular website is fully secured and the user can also make payments through the website with a credit card. But in a website with HTTP protocol, it will not show the lock icon and it will give the warning to skip this website and avoid entering passwords and credit card information on the website as they are no confidentiality of data and there are more chances of data leakage in which the attackers will gain all the information about the user's private and financial information.

HTTPS Secure: The HTTPS protocol is the Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which is basically an Internet standard protocol for the encryption and confidentiality of the normal HTTP protocol on the Internet. It is responsible for implementing various types of high-security cryptographic algorithms on the user's data to avoid any data stealing and leaking of personal information like passwords and other financial information related to credit cards and debit cards. The HTTPS allows the web browser to signal and mark down the websites that contain an extra layer of security with the TLS and the SSL layer certifications. It adds an extra encryption layer to provide confidentiality and authentication in communication. It also creates a more stable and secure level of protection to strange websites and servers. The websites which contain the HTTPS protocol can be easily trusted because they have their TLS (Transport Layer Security) that manages all the data transmission processes between two computers. HTTPS plays an important role in avoiding and reminding the users to not visit the websites that have tampering and data-stealing issues and which the hackers target them more often. It applies a VPN on the Local area network of the device so that no one can track the data packets that are used to target the users with targeted advertisements and SQL Injection also.

The HTTPS adds three-layer protection and encryption in the data transmission and makes it even more secure using the Transport Layer Security protocol. They are as follows:

• Data in the websites using HTTPS cannot be modified as it holds the condition for data integrity.
• It performs the encryption to keep an eye over all the attackers that are for the sake of breaking into someone's account and then stealing their information.
• The authentication of the data in HTTPS shows that it is reliable and it protects the user from websites like Denial-of-service attacks and the middle man attack in the stealing of the user's data.

HTTPS Request: The HTTPS request is basically a query or service generated by the user to get his desired work done by the website by interacting with the various tools on a website. For example, if you are clicking on a website for searching a particular thing or maybe clicking some random buttons, then you are requesting the website as the user to respond to its queries. The HTTP request may consider the small amount of text about what the user wanted the website to request. But due to the normal HTTP protocol connection then anyone on the Internet can read t=what the user was requesting him for the service. The attackers can gain some advantage by tracking the users across various websites that have HTTP protocols in them and then stealing their passwords and credit card information using the same trick.

Security in HTTPS protocol: The HTTPS protocol follows the basic set of instructions set up the large-scale organizations for the confidentiality and the privacy of the users over the Internet. The HTTPS protocol uses the TLS and SSL level certification by the organizations to perform public-key encryption to keep the user data confidential. This mechanism makes use of the two layers of the protocol in which there is a public key and a private key. It encrypts all the communication taking place between two devices on the Internet using the private keys of cryptography.

The HTTPS protocol also verifies the web servers on the Internet by checking their digital certificates and then authenticating and authorizing them using the unique and legitimate IP addresses of that website.