HTTPS is the encrypted version of HTTP. Instead of using plain-text socket communication, HTTPS encrypts the session data using either a version of SSL (Secure Socket Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security) the IETF-standardized successor to SSL, thus ensuring reasonable protection from eaves-droppers, and man in the middle attacks.
Its default TCP/IP port is 443.
Of course the level of protection depends on the correctness of the implementation[?] by the web browser, and the server software; and the actual symmetric[?] and asymmetric encryption[?] algorithms and hash algorithms[?] supported.
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