Securing Your Browser

HTTP vs. HTTPS, reading certificates, typosquatting, and browser settings  ·  Approx. 1–2 class days

StarringHTTP = Plaintext. HTTPS = Encrypted.

Use this as a quick reference for HTTP vs. HTTPS, reading a site certificate, spotting typosquatting, and browser security settings.

Securing Your Browser infographic

🧭 Plot Summary

Every website you visit is a conversation between your browser and a server — and that conversation can either be readable by anyone intercepting it, or completely scrambled. That's the entire difference between HTTP and HTTPS:

HTTP
Plaintext — readable if intercepted
HTTPS
Encrypted — unreadable if intercepted

You'll also learn to actually inspect a site's security certificate, spot typosquatting — URLs deliberately misspelled to imitate a real site — and configure real browser security settings for cookies, history, and downloads.

What you will do in this lesson

  • Compare HTTP and HTTPS traffic and see why the difference actually matters.
  • Inspect a real website's security certificate.
  • Learn to spot typosquatting — URLs built to trick you into thinking you're somewhere you're not.
  • Configure Chrome's browser security settings: cookies, history, and downloads.
  • Practice safe browsing habits you'll use for the rest of this course.

Why it matters

This is the same "unencrypted = readable" idea from file management in 1.2.2 — just applied to the traffic between you and every website you visit. Recognizing HTTP, certificates, and typosquatting is one of the highest-value habits you can build for everyday browsing.

✅ Self-Check Before You Roll On

Check off each item as you get there. These are not grades — they are your own signal.