Twitter adds option to always use HTTPS [CNET News]
Twitter is giving users some additional protection against hackers intent on stealing passwords from users of the social networking service. Now Twitter users have the option of accessing the site using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption via the https://www.twitter.com URL with a setting that always directs the user to that URL without having to browse directly to it.
Users can select "always use https" under their Twitter settings to force their browser to use the SSL connection.
The use of SSL prevents hackers on an open Wi-Fi network - at a restaurant or airport, for instance - from using a packet sniffer to obtain password information or other data passed between a user and Twitter.
The use of SSL for web sites was championed by Senator Chuck Schumer earlier this year in a letter addressed to Twitter, Amazon and Yahoo requesting that they improve the security of their users.
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