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Over the last 25 years, the Web has grown into a platform for much of the world’s communication, whether it be information sharing, community building, commerce, education, social networking, or underpinning applications. In meeting these needs, the Web’s trustworthiness has become critical to its success. If a person cannot trust that they are communicating with the party they intend, they can’t use the Web to shop safely; if they cannot be assured that Web-delivered news isn’t modified in transit, they won’t trust it as much. If someone cannot be assured that they’re talking only to the intended recipients, they might avoid social networking. In the past, Web sites have deployed HTTPS rarely; often, only when financial transactions take place. More recently, however, it has become apparent that nearly all activity on the Web can be considered sensitive, since it now plays such a central role in everyday life. At the same time, security on the Web has proven to be quite subtle.
If an attacker can modify content in transit, the power of the Web platform we are defining can easily be turned against the user (or the site they are using). For example, networks can (and some do) insert advertisements into unencrypted Web pages; by nature, this conveys the ability to track users. Even more hostile attacks include inserting persistent code into the browser that is run on subsequent visits ("cache poisoning"), or changing content (such as editing a company's Web site to affect its stock price). An attacker can also access information that might have been stored by a site in previous visits. Notably, these risks are just as present for users of "plain" Web sites as they are for those using more sophisticated, interactive sites. Also, if confidentiality is lost, something as simple as an image request "in the clear" (i.e., unencrypted) can give an attacker information about what the user is doing, opening an opportunity for further attacks -- again, even if the content being accessed seems innocuous. Web -- whether they be activists, businesses or ordinary citizens. This leads us to a conclusion that server authentication and integrity are baseline requirements for the continued success of the Web. Furthermore, confidentiality -- while arguably not always strictly necessary -- is often needed. Since the necessity of confidentiality may only become apparent in hindsight, we should also consider it as being crucial to the continued success of the Web. The Web platform should be designed to actively prefer secure communication - typically, by encouraging use of "https://" URLs instead of "http://" ones (although exceptions like "localhost" do exist). Barriers to adopting "https://" should be removed where feasible. The end-to-end nature of TLS encryption must not be compromised on the Web, in order to preserve trust.
The Internet has revolutionized the way we communicate. E-mail has been the most rapidly adopted form of communication ever known. Less than two decades ago, not many people had heard of it. Now, many of us e-mail instead of writing letters or even calling people on the phone. People around the world send out billions of e-mail messages every day. But sometimes even e-mail isn't fast enough. You might not know if a person you want to e-mail is online at that moment. Also, if you're e-mailing back and forth with someone, you usually have to click through a few steps. This is why instant messaging (IM) has become so popular. You can IM with anyone on your buddy list or contact list as long as that person is online. You type messages to each other into a small window that shows up on both of your screens. In this article, you will learn about the history of instant messaging and how it works.
You will also learn what the major IM programs are, what makes them different from each other and what the future holds for IM. The major online services, such as America Online (AOL), Prodigy and CompuServe, were the main way that ordinary people could connect and communicate with each other online. Online services provide the actual interface that you use when you're connected to the service, which creates a targeted experience for users. In the early 1990s, people began to spend more and more time on the Internet. Creative software developers designed chat-room software and set up chat rooms on Web servers. In a chat room, a group of people can type in messages that are seen by everyone in the "room." Instant messages are basically a chat room for just two people. That's when Mirabilis introduced ICQ, a free instant-messaging utility that anyone could use. ICQ, shorthand for "I seek you," uses a software application, called a client, that resides on your computer.
The client communicates with an ICQ server whenever you are online and the client is running. In 1997, AOL, considered the pioneer of the online community, gave its users the ability to talk in real time with each other through chat rooms and instant messages. In June 1998, AOL acquired Mirabilis and ICQ. The ICQ model is the basis for most instant-messaging utilities on the market today. In the next section we'll examine how these services work. You go to the download page and get a copy of the free software client for your computer. You install the software and open the client. The client tries to connect to the server. It uses a proprietary protocol for communication. Once the client is connected to the server, you can enter your name and password to log in to the server. If this is your first time on, you can sign up for an account and immediately begin using it.
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