We had several years of "if there's a padlock in the bottom right corner then you're safe to tell your secrets" twaddle. Has anyone noticed the padlock's gone from Firefox 4?
That's because people were thinking "if there's a padlock in the bottom right corner then you're safe to tell your secrets", which was never true. The padlock meant your connection was encrypted, that's all.
So how do you know your connection's encrypted if you don't have a padlock? The URI starts https, that's how. That's the address in the white pull-down text box above the webpage.
If (in Firefox 4) you click on the bitty-picture to the left of the URI (which in tech-speak is called the favicon) Firefox 4 will tell you who owns the website you're looking at (if it's a verified site), who vouches for their integrity (which you'd quite like to know if you're about to tell your secrets) and whether or not the link is encrypted. And if it is, you even get a little padlock just to reassure the people who can't see "https" in front of their nose.
Browser security padlock
Browser security padlock
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
Browser security padlock
spot;1360520 wrote: We had several years of "if there's a padlock in the bottom right corner then you're safe to tell your secrets" twaddle. Has anyone noticed the padlock's gone from Firefox 4?
That's because people were thinking "if there's a padlock in the bottom right corner then you're safe to tell your secrets", which was never true. The padlock meant your connection was encrypted, that's all.
So how do you know your connection's encrypted if you don't have a padlock? The URI starts https, that's how. That's the address in the white pull-down text box above the webpage.
If (in Firefox 4) you click on the bitty-picture to the left of the URI (which in tech-speak is called the favicon) Firefox 4 will tell you who owns the website you're looking at (if it's a verified site), who vouches for their integrity (which you'd quite like to know if you're about to tell your secrets) and whether or not the link is encrypted. And if it is, you even get a little padlock just to reassure the people who can't see "https" in front of their nose.
It does in 3.6.17 too - and very interesting reading it makes.
That's because people were thinking "if there's a padlock in the bottom right corner then you're safe to tell your secrets", which was never true. The padlock meant your connection was encrypted, that's all.
So how do you know your connection's encrypted if you don't have a padlock? The URI starts https, that's how. That's the address in the white pull-down text box above the webpage.
If (in Firefox 4) you click on the bitty-picture to the left of the URI (which in tech-speak is called the favicon) Firefox 4 will tell you who owns the website you're looking at (if it's a verified site), who vouches for their integrity (which you'd quite like to know if you're about to tell your secrets) and whether or not the link is encrypted. And if it is, you even get a little padlock just to reassure the people who can't see "https" in front of their nose.
It does in 3.6.17 too - and very interesting reading it makes.