HTTP and HTTPS: What's behind the letters

On the Internet, protocols are used to organize communication between different systems. The Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP, mediates between a client and a web server, usually unencrypted. To make this connection more secure, the HTTPS was developed with the addition of "Secure".

This is the difference between HTTP and HTTPS

HTTP is the "Hypertext Transfer Protocol". This is used for communication between a client, i.e. your web browser, and a web server. The communication is usually unencrypted, so the transmission can easily be intercepted by third parties. To make this communication more secure, the HTTPS was developed.

1. HTTPS means in detail "Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure".
2. Unlike HTTP, in this protocol the communication between client and server is encrypted.
3. At the very beginning of the communication, a certificate is sent to the client to certify the trustworthiness of the domain. Thus, the web server can be authenticated.
4. Another difference between the two protocols is the default port. This is 80 for HTTP and 443 for HTTPS.
5. Websites addressed via http start with "http://", while you can recognize the more secure protocol by the additional "s". Then at the beginning of the URL it says "https://".
6. The underlying protocol for HTTP is TCP. This instructs how the data streams should be transferred between computers. With HTTPS, the web browser automatically adds the port number 443 to the URL, instructing the computer to send the traffic over the TLS/SSL extension, which encrypts the data.