All sensitive information exchanged between your computer and our site is encrypted using SSL. Our SSL Certificate is provided by Verisign. This ensures that your information is transmitted securely and is safe from third parties. Please read on for more information on site encryption.

Site Encryption:

How Encryption Works:

Hostelberlin.com utilizes a technology called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). SSL is a set of rules followed by computers connected to the Internet. Encryption - These rules include encryption, which guards against eavesdropping,, Data Integrity - Data integrity, which ensures that your communications are not tampered with during transmission and Authentication - authentication, which verifies that the party who receives your communication are who they claim to be.

There are two levels of encryption: 40-bit and 128-bit. With 40-bit encryption, there are billions of possible keys to decipher the coded information, and only one of them works. Someone intercepting the information would have to find the right key - a nearly impossible task. With 128-bit encryption, there are 300 billion trillion times as many keys as with 40-bit encryption. It is virtually impossible for an unauthorized party to find the right key, even if they are equipped with the best computers.

To Check Our Site's Security Status:

When you click to confirm your booking on the confirmation page displaying your chosen accommodation you will be transferred to our secure server. Look at the site's URL in your browser window. You will see an "s" added to the familiar "http" (to make "https"), this indicates that SSL is in effect for the current page. You will be brought to a page displaying the following: https://secure.hostelworld.com/enterdetails.php In Netscape Navigator 3.0 and earlier, the broken key symbol in the lower-left corner of your browser window becomes solid when you are in secure mode. IIn Netscape Communicator 4.0 and 4.5, the padlock symbol in the corner, usually open, is closed in secure mode. In Internet Explorer 5.0, a closed padlock appears when you are in secure mode. If you're about to send information to a site that's not using SSL, your browser will warn you first. SSL protects your communications during transmission. Because of the authentication involved, secure servers are slower than the regular server for delivering files. Therefore SSL is only used when transmitting sensitive information across the web.