“Security… So what’s the big deal?”

The big deal is, that there are a lot of used homeschool curriculum sites and classified listings out there doing their best to help you stretch your family’s homeschool dollar, but doing very little or nothing at all to help protect your family’s wallet. By that I mean, that many of these sites (both free and even fee based), do very little if anything to protect your personal information, your identity.

For instance, free classified listings or list based “swap sites” that do not require user registration leave your email address or any other contact information you have posted open to email harvesting applications or “bots” that browse the web collecting email addresses and other personal information from unsecured websites. Ever wonder why you are getting so much unsolicited spam? The lists these “bots” generate are then used by spammers to solicit your email address with often less than appropriate or illegitimate items and services. Worse, a significat volume of this unsolicited spam may even appear legitimate, but often contains viruses, malware, or links to harmful websites containing similarly malicious code designed to infect your computer and compromise the security of your personal information.

“But the site I use requires registration.”

Well, registration is a step in the right direction but is by no means a complete or robust security solution. Unless the site uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption, your authentication information, namely your username and password, is being transmitted over the internet in clear readable text. This means that someone with a “packet sniffer” or similar automated utility that “watches” network traffic for certain key words, has the capability to collect and use your authentication information. Once they use this information to gain access to your account, they have whatever information you provided to the unsecure website during the registration process.

"How can I tell if a site uses SSL encryption?"

When accessing an SSL encrypted page you will see a small padlock appear in your browser’s menu, usually right next to the URL for the page you are accessing or along the bottom of the browser window. Here is an example, where I have highlighted the padlock in green…

Accessing an SSL encrypted page means that the information being displayed to you and the information being transmitted or typed by you on this page are fully encrypted when traveling over the internet.

Which brings us to yet another point: Not all sites that utilize SSL encryption fully implement a complete SSL solution. By this I mean, that sure they have an SSL encrypted login page, but beyond that they display your information in the user area on unencrypted pages. You may ask yourself then, why encrypt the login page, if you are going to display or transmit my user information to me in clear readable text. I myself asked the same question many times before configuring and developing this site. The answer is generally cost, and sometimes a lack of expertise. The sites that do not implement a full SSL encryption solution are generally using what is referred to as a shared SSL certificate, rather than a private SSL certificate. In most cases, a shared SSL certificate presents significant limitations in the way that a site can be designed utilizing SSL encryption. I would go into more detail to explain the difference, but I have likely already done enough to solve most of your insomnia problems. It will suffice to say that licensing a private SSL certificate costs money, while a shared SSL certificate is included with many website hosting services.

“So how does edifyathome.com stack up?”

Well… it is so nice of you to ask! You guessed it… we have implemented a robust SSL encryption solution utilizing a private 128bit SSL certificate. If you’re still reading this and want to be lulled into a coma, wait for my next detailed news article explaining what a 128bit certificate is. Otherwise, rest assured that when your personal information is displayed on edifyathome.com, whether it is via the login page or ANY and ALL pages in the membership area, it is being secured using 128bit SSL encryption.