

The problem with HTTP is that it is not a secure way to establish a connection, opening a door to cybercrooks who want to eavesdrop on your activities. This means your browser is now connected to the server using HTTP. When you visit a website you may see the HTTP:// prefix in the address. HyperText Transfer Protocol or HTTP is the network protocol used to deliver virtually all files and other data on the World Wide Web. What is HTTP and why is it being changed? Users can also whitelist sites manually, so that the HTTPS scanning does not slow access to the site. Our certificates are digitally signed by Avast’s trusted root authority and added into the root certificate store in Windows and in major browsers to protect against threats coming over HTTPS traffic that otherwise could not be detected.Īvast whitelists websites if we learn that they don't accept our certificate. To detect malware and threats on HTTPS sites, Avast must remove the SSL certificate and add its self-generated certificate. How Avast’s HTTPS scanning feature works (the short version)Īvast is able to detect and decrypt TLS/SSL protected traffic in our Web-content filtering component.

To address this, Avast’s Web Shield technology scans HTTPS sites for malware and threats. That’s why it is imperative for security software to check this attack vector. Just as with plain HTTP, if a legitimate website is hacked, malware scripts and binaries can be placed into the HTTPS page that appears to be safe. An encrypted connection ensures that the connection cannot be modified by anyone else, but it does not guarantee that the actual content being downloaded is safe. As more and more online services are moving to HTTPS, attacks are increasing. That action encouraged webmasters everywhere to make the switch to HTTPS. Last year, search giant Google sweetened the pot by adding HTTPS to their ranking algorithm. More and more, regular websites are making the switch from unencrypted HTTP to encrypted HTTPS. We have gotten used to seeing it on bank sites or shopping carts where we input our credit card information. Internet users with basic security knowledge are aware that they should look for the padlock icon in the address bar or the HTTPS in a web address to indicate that a website is secure. Avast Web Shield scans HTTPS sites for malware and threats.
