CIO Council Plans Https Default in 2017
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By
Joseph Marks
About 70 percent of federal web domains now use https encryption.
The federal government will implement https encryption on newly registered government websites by default beginning in the spring of 2017, according to a Thursday blog post.
The government’s council of chief information officers will submit newly created dot-gov domains and their subdomains to major web browsers such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Google’s Chrome for default https encryption, according to the CIO Council blog post.
Https encrypts visitors’ activity once they reach a protected site, shielding that activity and any information the user enters from prying eyes. Users can see the https protection and a lock icon to the left of the web address.
The CIO Council’s move won’t affect existing government websites.
The White House ordered federal agencies to support https encryption in 2015 with a Jan 1, 2017 deadline. About 70 percent of federal web domains now use https, according to a CIO Council tally.