- Secure Computing
- Guarding privacy
- Secure pages
How to tell if a web page is secure
"Secure pages" are special web pages through which data can be sent in a coded or encrypted format (Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL). Secure pages are often used for transmitting passwords, credit card numbers, or other personal or financial information. Whenever a web page asks you to supply your password, credit card information, or other personal information, always check to be sure that the page is secure.
Secure pages are hosted by organizations and companies that have gone through a careful screening process by a third-party "certificate authority" like VeriSign to establish that the companies are legitimate, and receive an electronic certification that essentially verifies that the organization is who it says it is on their secure web pages.
How to tell if a web page is secure
There are two quick ways to tell if a web page is secure:
1. Look for the "https" in the URL address line at the top of the browser window.
2. Look for a small closed padlock icon within your browser window. The lock icon locations vary, depending on your brand of web browser:
On offical Yale email messages, or on the Yale CAS login page, you will also see Yale's VeriSign certificate logo for a secure server (https). If you click on the VeriSign logo you'll see the verification from VeriSign that you are looking at a legitimate message or secure page from Yale University:
