Abstract
This paper presents a study on the evolution of the use of HTTPS by the official websites of all (308) Portuguese municipalities. One year ago, we found a bad situation regarding HTTPS usage: only a small percentage of websites adopted HTTPS correctly. The results were communicated to the relevant entities so actions could be taken. After one year, we performed a new assessment to check for evolution. This paper presents the results of this second assessment. We found a significantly better situation, although still with plenty of room for improvement: 31 municipal websites were classified as Good (20 more), while 42 less were classified as Bad (100 in total). We concluded that two determinants that were identified as contributing to explain the results of the first study - municipal taxes and total population - do not contribute to explain the improvements observed in this assessment. We believe that we contributed to those improvements by raising awareness to the high number of municipalities not using or badly using HTTPS.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Nottingham, M.: Securing the Web: W3C TAG Finding 22 January 2015, W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG) (2015)
Morgan, C.: IAB Statement on Internet Confidentiality, Internet Architecture Board (2014). https://www.iab.org/2014/11/14/iab-statement-on-internet-confidentiality. Accessed 27 Nov 2018
Vyas, T., Dolanjski, P.: Communicating the Dangers of Non-Secure HTTP, Mozilla Security Blog (2017). https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2017/01/20/communicating-the-dangers-of-non-secure-http. Accessed 27 Nov 2018
Schechter, E.: A secure web is here to stay, Google Security Blog (2018). https://security.googleblog.com/2018/02/a-secure-web-is-here-to-stay.html. Accessed 27 Nov 2018
European Commission, Europa Web Guide (2019). https://wikis.ec.europa.eu/display/WEBGUIDE/2019.08.30+|+Notes+regarding+EDPS+inspection. Accessed 12 Nov 2019
Scott, T.: Policy to Require Secure Connections across Federal Websites and Web Services. In Washighton DC: Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget (2015)
CNS - Centro Nacional de Cibersegurança, Arquitetura de segurança das redes e sistemas de informação: Requisitos técnicos. (2019). https://www.cncs.gov.pt/content/files/SAMA2020_RASRSI_CNCS.pdf
Vumo, A.P., Spillner, J., Kopsell, S.: Analysis of Mozambican websites: how do they protect their users?. In: 2017 Information Security for South Africa (ISSA) (2017)
Wullink, M., Moura, G.C.M., Hesselman, C.: Automating Domain Name Ecosystem Measurements and Applications. In: 2018 Network Traffic Measurement and Analysis Conference (TMA), Tma, pp. 1–8 (2018)
Andersdotter, A., Jensen-Urstad, A.: Evaluating websites and their adherence to data protection principles: tools and experiences. In: IFIP International Summer School on Privacy and Identity Management, Springer, pp. 39–51 (2016)
Buchanan, W.J., Woodward, A., Helme, S.: Cryptography across industry sectors. J. Cyber Secur. Technol. 1(3–4), 145–162 (2017)
Gomes, H., Zúquete, A., Dias, G. P., Marques, F.: Usage of HTTPS by Municipal Web Sites in Portugal. In: New Knowledge in Information Systems and Technologies. WorldCIST 2019 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol. 931, Springer, Cham, pp. 155–164 (2019)
Acknowledgments
This work was partially funded by National Funds through the FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, in the context of the project UID/CEC/00127/2019.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Gomes, H., Zúquete, A., Dias, G.P., Marques, F., Silva, C. (2020). Evolution of HTTPS Usage by Portuguese Municipalities. In: Rocha, Á., Adeli, H., Reis, L., Costanzo, S., Orovic, I., Moreira, F. (eds) Trends and Innovations in Information Systems and Technologies. WorldCIST 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1160. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45691-7_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45691-7_31
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-45690-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-45691-7
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)