HTTPS and the Rise of Internet Security

In its early days, the internet was an experiment by the military (originally called ARPANET). From there, it found its roots in universities as a tool for research and data transmission. Nowadays, the internet has transformed into the largest medium through which we can communicate and exchange ideas and information. But how can we keep this data secure?

HTTP (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol) is a protocol for accessing information piece-by-piece on the internet. It was developed initially by the founder of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee. It established the concept of links being used to navigate the internet. For several years, different variations of HTTP were the standard for web browsing. Even in many sites today, the standard HTTP is used.

HTTP lets you load in a page (usually a .html file) from your computer via the internet. This works by communicating with a central web server and loading in other artifacts separately. For example, videos and ads will require access to video servers and ad servers, respectively.
The messages it sends to the server are known as “requests”, and the data it receives back are known as “responses”. It uses a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to break up the data into little containers and also remember the order of these containers. Modern connections use several different paths that change in speed and efficiency all the time. In order to best utilize these systems, TCP sends the containers across separate paths and uses the order to rearrange the information again, putting together the webpage in its correct form.

One important concept should be noted here: metadata. The order that is kept by the TCP for each of the sets of files on the page is an example of data that describes data or metadata. Another example of metadata is the labels you put on a table or Venn diagram. We all use metadata everyday without even thinking about it!
A modern system known as HTTPS has been implemented on most major websites. This allows people to send and receive files that are encrypted on both ends. As our reliance on the internet has grown and become more mobile, we have begun to enter and use sensitive data in many public spaces. HTTPS serves as a protection here against hackers stealing sensitive information on public networks.