Good news now for all Twitter users in terms of security as Twitter is now rolling out the use of HTTPS/SSL by default if your account is a newly created account. While for existing Twitter user, it is advisable for you to turn your HTTPS security on manually until Twitter make it default and compulsory to everyone.
Why We Must Use HTTPS in Twitter?
Lets put it in a very simple way with the given example. If you are doing your regular web browsing especially login into your Twitter account and make some sort of Tweets on a Public WiFi, it is possible that you are exposed to a Man in the Middle attack.
Whatever information that is tapped by the middle man is stolen completely. However if you are using HTTPS, things is going to be different. This is because a HTTPS transmission protocol will encrypt the data that you are going to send to Twitter as soon as you hit the Login button until you hit the Logout button.
As a result, the information that is stolen by the middle man now is some sort of gibberish data. Basically it will require some decryption to make it readable and I am pretty sure that it is not easy to decipher the data without knowing the key. That is why it is your part now to turn the security feature on.
How to Switch on HTTPS in Twitter
Switching on the HTTPS is not difficult. Basically what you need to do is to go to your account settings and you should see an item with a checkbox as below. Check the option to enable HTTPS.
Many large web applications are beginning to impose HTTPS especially Google’s product line such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google+. Facebook is implementing it partially just like Twitter but I am sure it is going to be mandatory in no time. Lastly, do follow me on Twitter @itscolumn to let me tweet you on the latest security post from this blog.
About Alan Tay
If we Observe, The Above article gives u enough information on WHY TWITTER IS PROVIDING US HTTPS/SSL OPTION…
actually what happens is that by usiing HTTPS it gives u more security…HTTPS is nothing but HYPER TEXT TRANSFER PROTOCOL SECURITY….& Here, In this Article its showing us to select the HTTPS option in twitter which is so simple…..i make use of this article & check the option of HTTPS in my twitter account…i wanna share this article in my blog too…so nice!! gud job!!
Thanks for the comment Faiz. However the signature is not necessary as you already included your name and website up there already.
i say twitter has done a great job actually..i was looking for this article for the past couple of weeks..if people who are confused about HTTPS then
What is HTTPS?
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a secure version of the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (http). HTTPS allows secure ecommerce transactions, such as online banking.
Web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox display a padlock icon to indicate that the website is secure, as it also displays https:// in the address bar.
truly appreciated!!!
Thanks for the comment Hasmat. However the signature is not necessary as you already included your name and website up there already.