Gmail Moves To HTTPS By Default 275
clone53421 writes "Although Gmail has long supported HTTPS as an option, Gmail announced their decision yesterday to switch everyone to HTTPS by default: 'We initially left the choice of using it up to you because there's a downside: https can make your mail slower since encrypted data doesn't travel across the web as quickly as unencrypted data. Over the last few months, we've been researching the security/latency tradeoff and decided that turning https on for everyone was the right thing to do.' I wonder if this has anything to do with the reports of Chinese users having their accounts hacked? 'Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves,' said David Drummond in that blog update. That does sound like it perhaps could be a result of insecure HTTP traffic being intercepted in transit between the users and Gmail's servers."
Hang on... (Score:2, Funny)
That does sound like it perhaps could be a result of insecure HTTP traffic being intercepted in transit between the users and Gmail's servers."
If someone can intercept your traffic how will this help? They can intercept all your secret handshake bits too.
Encrypted data doesn't travel across web as quick (Score:3, Funny)
We need network neutrality for encrypted packets!
Re:Wait, what? (Score:2, Funny)
4. Profit!
Ouch. (Score:3, Funny)
encrypted data doesn't travel across the web as quickly as unencrypted data
That just hurts my brain.
Re:Will Yahoo! follow suit? (Score:5, Funny)
I hate to read mail at cafes and other places where I'm not certain of the LAN security.
Weird, I love reading mail at insecure cafes... you can sit in the corner and play games like "match the email to the person" and "convince the businessman that you're a replacement representative for his meeting" :-)
Re:Wait, what? (Score:3, Funny)
I will be really scared when encryption systems do comprehension.
Re:What about slashdot? (Score:2, Funny)
because there's a downside: https can make your browsing slower since encrypted data doesn't travel across the web as quickly as unencrypted data.