With Chrome 68, launching today, Google web browser will now list any website that doesn’t use HTTPS as “not secure.” HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure and is a technology websites can use that ensures that any information you send to or get from the website is encrypted, meaning third parties can’t see what information you are sending or receiving. In other words, the secure version of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
But shockingly, over half of the 1 million top websites still use HTTP without redirecting to an HTTPS connection–meaning it’s a lot easier for bad actors to grab your data en route. Just as worrying, 20% of the largest 502 websites in the world load over HTTP and not HTTPS, according to Troy Hunt. At least, from today, Chrome users will be able to know which websites are still insecure–and avoid them if they so choose.
The majority of the Internet’s top 1M most popular sites will show up as “Not Secure” in @GoogleChrome starting July 24th. Make sure your site redirects to #HTTPS, so you don’t have the same problem. @Cloudflare makes it easy! #SecureOnChrome https://t.co/G2a0gi2aM8 pic.twitter.com/r2HWkfRofW
— Cloudflare (@Cloudflare) July 23, 2018