Google Chrome To Start Warning Users Of HTTP Sites That Transmit Passwords And Bank Card Details

When Google announced the Chrome 50 Release back in April, they also announced some security patches in a bid to make Chrome safer for users. Now the company is taking further steps to make browsing safer by alerting users of possible HTTP sites that may be unsafe for personal details. Google’s aim is to ultimately encourage site owners to migrate to the secure HTTPS which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol over SSL (Secure Socket Layer) in future especially if people have to enter sensitive information including their passwords on such sites. This is all part of long term plans by Google to label HTTP sites as insecure in future.

So starting from Chrome 56 (future version of the Chrome browser) which is set to be announced in January, all HTTP sites that transmit passwords and bank card details will be flagged as insecure and it doesn’t matter the intention of the site owner(s). In a statement, Emily Schechter who is a member of the Chrome Security Team said

In following releases, we will continue to extend HTTP warnings, for example, by labelling HTTP pages as “not secure” in Incognito mode, where users may have higher expectations of privacy. Eventually, we plan to label all HTTP pages as non-secure, and change the HTTP security indicator to the red triangle that we use for broken HTTPS.

We will publish updates to this plan as we approach future releases, but don’t wait to get started moving to HTTPS. HTTPS is easier and cheaper than ever before, and enables both the best performance the web offers and powerful new features that are too sensitive for HTTP. Check out our set-up guides to get started.

The internet giant had in August announced that it was making it easier for Gmail users to identify and block malware emails by flagging them right in your inbox. You would have to look out for a question mark sign and if you wish to continue, you’ll still be alerted of the possible consequences of clicking on links within such emails.