Cookies and an extra “S”: from HTTP to HTTPS

We have recently made two changes to our website: we now use cookies and have switched to the HTTPS standard.

The “S” in the URL stands for security, and HTTPS is now standard for most websites. Until now, this was different on our website: the reason was the high encryption overhead. When hundreds of thousands of people access our website simultaneously shortly after an earthquake, server capacity is reduced under HTTPS. Especially at a moment when the need for information is particularly high, every additional request that we are able to handle is important.

Since our website offers neither personalised content nor login functions, there has never been a security risk. Nevertheless, we want to comply with today’s standard. We have therefore made several improvements to ensure that, even with HTTPS, we are as well prepared as possible to handle the large number of requests in the event of a bigger earthquake.

We are now also using cookies. These are small text files that are stored on the device for a defined period of time when visiting www.seismo.ethz.ch. Cookies help us to better protect the website against targeted attacks and to statistically analyse its use in order to align further developments even more consistently with user needs. For this purpose, we use the analytics service “Matomo,” which we operate ourselves on a server in Switzerland. The IP addresses of visitors are collected in anonymised form; therefore, no conclusions can be drawn about individual persons.

Further information:
Data protection – SED website