#RSAC: Wikipedia founder plugs HTTPS

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has plugged the adoption of HTTPS at the RSA Conference in Europe adding that all users and websites should move to the security mechanism.

“There will be some exceptions to that, but I think we are moving to a level of computational power and ... it is clear that websites can afford to do it," Wales told the audience.

"[It] is something that we should all be doing ... it is something we should all be concerned about, such as session hijacking."

He also took credit in the keynote presentation for helping to freeze the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) after putting Wikipedia into a "blackout" in which the site was inaccessible on 18 January.

Wales said ten million people contacted the US Congress that day and some 160 million visitors saw the Wikipedia blackout banner.

“Tons of people saw the banner, the phone system in the House of Representatives crashed so it had a big impact on Capitol Hill and their response was immediately to drop it," he said.

“We should not get involved in general political issues ... we are only interested in freedom of speech and openness of the internet.”