Let us Sum it up

Some of you may have noticed already that the address bar is a little more crowded in your web browser when you are on your Mediabox websites versus most other sites. Once you hit the "Login" page you will find that the address starts with HTTPS instead of HTTP. What does the extra “S” stand for, besides “spiffy," “splendid," and “spectacular?" Well, in this instance it stands for “Secure." Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up…

Just like on financial websites run by banks and websites approved to process credit card transactions, Mediabox protects all the information sent between your web browser and our servers using the HTTPS protocol. That means the data is encrypted (encoded) so that only the sender and the receiver can unscramble the data, and anyone in-between will effectively know only what webserver IP address you are connecting to and how much data you are sending and receiving, but have no idea what the data actually is.

Why is that important? Well, for starters, it means as your project data travels across the internet nobody else can tell what that data is, so your attachments, digital assets, comments, and other confidential information is kept private. Very private. It also means that your login data, including your email address and password, are securely encrypted the same way, so your internet provider, the people down the street on the same cable or fiber run as you, and Bobby next door who has hacked your wireless home network still can’t get at your data when you connect to Mediabox.

Most browsers now also add a little padlock icon or add a colored area displaying the name of the SSL certificate in the address bar when you have made a secure connection. Yes, that takes up a little more room, but it is meant to grab your attention and let you know something is special about the website. You can watch for the changes by just typing in the address of your Mediabox website, and the moment you click the “Login” button you will see the HTTP change to HTTPS at the very least. Once you see that, all the data sent between your browser and Mediabox is secure. It’s just our way of helping our customers sleep a little better at night.

Written by: Brian Contario of Conecture Technologies, LLC