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Using Secure Websites

What is a secure website?

A secure website uses encryption to secure traffic to and from it and is verified by a third party. When you connect to a secure website all information sent to the server is encrypted, which means it is impossible to eavesdrop on your browsing. The server also proves that it is who it says it is by signing every exchange with an SSL certificate. This is a digital signature which is verified by trusted third parties such as VeriSign or Thawte,  the signature ensures that your messages are never tampered with and always go to the right place.

How do I know if a Website is Secure?

In all browsers you will know when you are on a secure website because a padlock icon will be visible in the browser. The icon will not be on the web page but actually part of the browser frame, this is important to note as it is easy for crooks to put a padlock image on their website and pretend it is a secure website.
This is one way to tell if a website is a phishing website, any important website which you log into will be secured so if you follow a link from an email to your banks website and cannot see the padlock icon then it is definitely a phishing website. Occasionally you will go to site and a message box from the browser will appear telling you that the SSL certificate for this site is not verified. This means that the third parties we talked about previously have not verified this certificate, as such you should not trust it and treat the website with suspicion. 

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