The U.S. government is mandating the use of the HTTPS security protocol on all of its public websites and web services by the end of 2016. HTTPS will authenticate communications with government websites and encrypt the data sent back and forth. It will help protect against snooping and imposter websites. The protocol has been used for years by financial websites but has expanded significantly in recent years. The expansion has been partly due to Edward Snowden’s revelations about government spying, so it’s not without irony that the government itself is now deploying the technology.”]
Source: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2933172/us-to-require-https-for-all-government-websites.html