Jump to a Position on a Web Page with Anchor Tags

When citing web pages in a brief, it may be helpful to bring the reader to a particular location on a long web page that the citation refers to, rather than requiring her to scroll down to the right location. This can be accomplished by adding anchor tags in the URL. An anchor tag is a particular tag inserted after the URL and a hash tag. So for example, if you cite to this web page for Canada's Access to Information Act:

https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/A-1/FullText.html

. . . but want to bring the reader to a particular section in the Act, you can use this URL:

https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/A-1/FullText.html#s-90.08

The reader will be taken to the same web page, but the browser will automatically go down to section 90.08. In order to find the tag you need for a particular point on the web page, in Chrome, right click and select 'View Page Source'. Look for a reference to id= . The text enclosed in quotes after this reference will be the tag that you need.

Certificate Revocation Lists

Last night's Tip discussed the use of certificate authorities to authenticate web site owners, and encrypt communications. Certificate authorities do not remain valid indefinitely. Expired certificates will generate an error message. Certificate authorities that have been revoked for some other reason will be put on a Certificate Revocation List (CRL). This is an example of an error message you'll see in a browser if a CA has been put on a CRL.

Some CAs on a CRL will only be on hold, and are not necessarily permanently revoked.

Digital certificates will be placed on a CRL when public keys have been compromised, a certificate is believed to be a fake, the issuer of the CA is compromised, or a web site owner no longer owns a server or domain name.

VPN Protocols

Virtual private networks can use different protocols.

1. OpenVPN is the most widely used VPN protocol, and is considered to be the most secure protocol. There are actually two different versions of OpenVPN - OpenVPN with UDP (User Datagram Protocol), or OpenVPN with TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). The latter is slower, but more stable.

2. Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) differs from OpenVPN in that it does not require a third party application. It works on the network level, rather than using SSL (secure socket layer), like OpenVPN.

3. WireGuard is an experimental VPN protocol that has not been widely adopted. It should offer faster performance, and it was designed for use on cell phones since it switches between network interfaces without dropping the connection.

4. Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is an older protocol with security vulnerabilities that should be avoided.