What does the green padlock mean in your browser?

Have you ever noticed a green padlock in your browser when you type in a URL? Have you ever wondered what it meant? Does it mean the site is secure? Who decides which sites get one?

In short, a green padlock tells you that communications with the web site that you're on are encrypted. This means that when you type in your personal information, it will be translated into a completely unreadable format until it is changed back (decrypted) once the data reaches its destination.

The padlock also signifies that the legal entity that controls the website can be identified. This includes information such as the name, place of business, and jurisdiction of the site's owners.

Free HTTPS certificates for websites!!! Let's Encrypt!

The days of paying a company to validate your SSL encryption standards are soon gone once a new service called "Let's Encrypt" hits the Web next year in 2015! Or, in English, web domains don't have to pay to get a green padlock in the URL bar next to their name anymore.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit digital rights group based in the United States, recently announced plans to launch a new certificate authority in 2015. While normally, a new cert authority wouldn't be news, Mozilla, Cisco, Akamai, IdenTrust, and researchers at the University of Michigan have worked together with EFF to provide the new service FREE!