How To Tell If A Website Is Secure Or Not?

If you need help with your website, talk to the friendly and professional website developers at Fireworks today! Call us on 1300 880 648 or 07 3481 8800 for free advice and a quote.

How To Check If A Webpage Is Secure Or Not?

To check if a webpage is secure, there are three simple things that you can check :

1) At the top of your internet browser (explorer, mozilla etc) you should the website address. This will be something like http://www.website.com. Check if this website address starts with "http://" or whether it starts with "https://" (notice the extra "s")? If it does start with http://, then the webpage is just a normal page on a website which is not secure. So do not enter any personal information into this page. However if the page does start with https:// then the website is in a secure area. Check the next step also.

2) Look for a padlock somewhere in your internet browser. If there is no padlock on the browser somewhere then the page could be unsecure. If the browser does have a padlock, then it means that the website is secure. NOTE: The padlock is not shown on the website page (as this means absolutely nothing), rather the padlock that you're looking for is somewhere on the browser. Here are two examples of how the padlock can look:

3) Having done the above 2 steps, you now know that the website that you're on is secure and only the intended recipients can access your credit card details. The only other thing to check is that you are happy for the intended recipients to recieve your credit card details. If you have not heard of the organization or have not had any dealings with them, it is wise to check their website for credibility and contact details. If the organization's website looks dodgy or doesn't have normal contact information, you may hesitate from paying money to them.

What Makes The "https://" Website Secure? (technical information)

Their are two protocols that secure a website - "SSL" (Secure Sockets Layer) and "TLS" (Transport Layer Security). Both of these protocols encrypt information between pages so that if information is "intercepted" by an unauthorized party, the encrypted data is meaningless and useless unless they know have to decrypt the information. By using SSL or TLS, only the intended recipient has the encryption "key" and can successfully decrypt the information passed to it.

SSL and TLS use third party companies such as Comodo, VeriSign or GeoTrust to validate that the website is genuine, provide the encryption and decryption abilities. As an example, you can see the effect that SSL security has on the Commonwealth Bank website via these two image screenshots below :

Internet Explorer Screenshot

Mozilla Firefox Screenshot

This is a very simple explanation of how these protocols work. For more detailed information visit this link.

How To Make Your Website Secure?

Whether you wish to make just one page on your website secure or the entire website secure, the process is the same. If you need help with making your website secure, call us on 1300 880 648 or 07 3481 8800 and our friendly and professional security technicians will give you free advice and a quote.

Making a new or existing website secure involves the following 4 steps:

1) We move the website hosting to a "dedicated IP address". The majority of website hosting is on what is called a "shared IP address" where your website shares the same IP address as many other websites. An IP address is the location of the computer server that hosts your website and is a numerical number such as 125.292.28.48.

2) We register a new SSL certificate with a third party company. We usually use Comodo or Verisign as suppliers of SSL certificates.

3) We install and configure the SSL certificate. This is installed on the hosting server and often involves communication between the SSL provider and the website host.

4) We make any final adjustments to the website to work within the new https:// secure area. The existing website may be in a unsecure http:// area, therefore this step would involve moving any unsecured pages to the https:// area and relinking the website up.

Would You Like More Information Or A Quote?

Fireworks regularly make new and existing websites secure on a weekly basis. We can usually complete the process within a 5 day period. Call us on 1300 880 648 or 07 3481 8800 today! Our professional and friendly staff are happy to discuss your requirements and provide free advice and a quote.