Yeah, HTTPS is the response to the problem. The problem is that the internet is nowhere near as "safe" as it was a few decades ago. (Or at least, the unsafe-ness is now better known.)
It's a bit like complaining that you can no longer take your origami collection outside without an umbrella. Well, the umbrella isn't the problem, the rain is. The umbrella is a solution. But of course being under an umbrella isn't the same as being outside on a sunny day. So sure, lament the change in the weather; lament the inconvenience of carrying an umbrella around all the time; but don't blame the umbrella for the rain.
> The problem is that the internet is nowhere near as "safe" as it was a few decades ago.
It wasn't very safe a few decades ago either.
In 2000, I had naively set up a Linux box under my desk with a public IP, thinking maybe I could host a blog on it. It got a number of portscans within minutes of being set up, and subsequent monitoring showed lots of intrusion attempts. Luckily the box was patched, but I was essentially one zero-day away from being 0wn3d. But I did learn a lot before moving the box behind a firewall.
I guess that back in the day, some people could wish these away as unproven threats well into the early 2000s until malware like Nimda / Code Red well and truly destroyed that illusion.
It's a bit like complaining that you can no longer take your origami collection outside without an umbrella. Well, the umbrella isn't the problem, the rain is. The umbrella is a solution. But of course being under an umbrella isn't the same as being outside on a sunny day. So sure, lament the change in the weather; lament the inconvenience of carrying an umbrella around all the time; but don't blame the umbrella for the rain.