HTTPS already protects half of all web traffic

Implementing HTTPS transmission has many benefits for websites, not only protecting their users by preventing third parties from snooping on network traffic, and preventing content hijacking and cookie stealing, but also getting better rankings in Google, as the search giant uses HTTPS as a signal in its search algorithm. On websites that do not provide HTTPS protection, privacy-conscious users will not register or enter their credit card information.

It's taken a long time for most sites on the internet to make the switch from HTTP to HTTPS, but as of earlier this month, the move to encrypt the web reached a major milestone, with half of all web traffic now protected by HTTPS, according to a report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

As you can see in the chart below, Firefox has seen a steady increase in HTTPS traffic over the past two years, from 37.81% in October 2015 to 52.93% in February 2017. Chrome has also seen a similar increase. According to Google’s own numbers, 55% of sites visited by Windows users in Chrome this month were loaded over HTTPS.

While this is great news, it still means that half of all web traffic on the Internet is not protected by the HTTPS protocol, so there is still a lot of work to be done.