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Here
at Wally's Delicatessen, we want you to enjoy your online shopping experience
confident in the knowledge that your personal information and credit
card details will be transmitted safely using the most powerful security
systems commercially available.
These
notes are designed to inform you how you can tell whether the website
requesting your personal and financial details is secure!
Websites
usually use a secure connection when they ask you to send personal information
online. Personal information such as telephone numbers and credit card
numbers should always be sent on a secure connection. But how do you
know if the connection is really secure? Because they told you so, right?
Wrong! Not everyone tells the truth.
You
web browser on the other hand, does not lie and will indicate to you
whether the connection is secure or not. Both Internet Explorer and
Netscape Navigator have similar methods of indicating a secure connection.
Where are the indicators? When a site is secure, both Explorer and Netscape
will display a closed Padlock in the status bar. The status bar is at
the very bottom of your web browser. (See the padlocks in the images
below.)
Internet Explorer Status Bar (Secure Connection)
Netscape
Status Bar (Secure Connection)
With
Internet Explorer, if the connection is not secure, then the padlock
is not displayed. Netscape on the other hand displays an opened padlock.
Internet Explorer Status Bar (Normal Connection)
Netscape
Status Bar (Normal Connection)
Quick
tip
Another
sure way to check if the site's connection is secure is by looking at
their web address. It MUST start with "https://"
instead of the usual "http:". The "S" after
"http" signifies that the connection is secure.
What
is 128 Bit Encryption?
As
you know, any information you give whilst on the secure pages of the
Wallys's Delicatessen website is protected by 128 Bit Encryption. But
what Is 128-Bit Encryption, and how does it work?
Encryption
is a sophisticated scrambling method that is designed to prevent unauthorized
eavesdropping on electronic data. Encryption works by taking a piece
of information and processing it with a mathematical formula (called
an "algorithm") that converts the information into a meaningless string
of letters and numbers. For example, the sentence "This is a secret,"
when encrypted may look like "as03xx1a79x!dqt." This encrypted string
of information can be sent over the Internet with the likelihood that
anyone intercepting the message will not be able to understand it. When
the string does reach its intended destination, a similar mathematical
formula is applied to the string to decrypt it. 128-bit encryption refers
to the size of the key used to encrypt the message. A longer key means
the encryption is more "random," and someone attempting to decipher
the message will have to try more combinations of keys. Each extra bit
in a key doubles the complexity of the key.
Based
on the past history of improvements in computer performance, security
experts expect that 128-bit encryption will work well on the Internet
for at least the next ten years.
View a Test Page
If
you would like to view a Live Test Page with a secure 128 Bit encrypted
connection, please click
here!
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