Half of the world's websites use HTTPS: HTTP is being phased out

In the early years, the data transmitted by the HTTP protocol was unencrypted, that is, in plain text, so it was very unsafe to use the HTTP protocol to transmit private information. In order to ensure that these private data can be transmitted encrypted, Netscape designed the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protocol to encrypt the data transmitted by the HTTP protocol, thus giving birth to HTTPS.

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However, the HTTPS protocol requires applying for a certificate from a CA, which usually requires payment. Of course, in order to reduce the pressure on webmasters and developers and accelerate promotion, the Let's Encrypt open source free certificate, which was jointly launched by Mozilla Alliance, Cisco and others in September 2015.

According to the latest monitoring data from Firefox Telemetry, 50% of websites on the entire Internet have enabled the HTTPS protocol, an increase of 10% in more than a year from November 2015 to January 2017.

Internationally, large Internet companies such as Google and Facebook have announced support for full-site HTTPS. Domestic e-commerce websites such as Taobao, Tmall, and JD.com have also completed the full-site switch, which can greatly prevent traffic hijacking, man-in-the-middle attacks, etc.

Currently, users using Chrome 56 or above will find that when opening an HTTP website, a red "Not Secure" warning will appear in the address bar.