Cybersecurity Foundations · 5 min

HTTP & HTTPS

How the web talks — and what encryption does and doesn't do

This lesson explains the concept, then checks your understanding in a short interactive exercise.

HTTP: request and response

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) defines how a client asks for a resource and how a server replies.

GET — retrieve a resource
POST — send data to the server
Headers — extra metadata about the request or reply
Status codes — the outcome, e.g. 200 OK, 404 Not Found

HTTPS adds encryption in transit

HTTPS wraps HTTP in TLS, encrypting traffic between browser and server so it can't easily be read or altered as it travels across the network. A certificate helps the browser verify it's talking to the domain it expects.

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