or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure,

http (without the s) is the way we communicate with web servers, to show us the information that you have stored pages, for example when we connect to http://www.facebook.com our browser asks the Facebook server, the server returns to the browser the information necessary to display the Facebook home page.

This protocol also allows us to send information to the server (When completed form and click send, when we got a photo, etc.)

Precisely what form is fill when we introduced our username and password and they are sent to the server (in this case Facebook) on what we call plain text , simply that all parameters are sent as is.

And this just told me that affect me?

Well let affect you when you send plain text, information travels over the network without any protection, but the point where it is more dangerous is near you, in your own network, any computer connected to your router, either by cable or wifi, you can access all the information they transmit and receive. This is especially dangerous in the open or secured wifi networks but public (cafes, libraries, airports, etc.) in which you have no idea who is connected to that network.

There is, indeed, a Firefox extension that makes this work without having to have knowledge

How I can help?

Using https, which is just the version of the protocol discussed above, but it sends the information in encrypted form, so that only the two parties (you and Facebook) can decrypt and access it.

But the important thing I would like to clarify with this article, is that nothing or little worth having the option enabled Facebook to browse your site if at the time of access and still use http loguearnos as though when we are in Facebook the communication to be encrypted when loguearme our data are sent unencrypted access. It is therefore important to be write protected https://www.facebook.com * from the beginning.

* Believing that we are protected 100% is the first step we have problems, we should not fall into the paranoia, but know that we are never 100% sure

In this post the technical concepts are deliberately simplified to facilitate understanding everyone, if you want more information refer you to specialized blog such as http://www.kriptopolis.org