TABLE OF CONTENT:
Introduction
What is SSL?
What is an SSL certificate?
Why do you need an SSL certificate?
What information does an SSL certificate contain?
Why do you need an SSL certificate?
- Encryption
- Authentication
How to obtain an SSL certificate?
What are the types of SSL certificates?
- Extended Validation Certificate (EV SSL)
- Organization validated certificate (OV SSL)
- Domain Validated certificates (DV SSL)
- Wildcard SSL
- Multi-domain SSL certificate (MDC)
- Unified Communications Certificate (UCC)
What happens when an SSL certificate expires?
How to ensure a website has an SSL certificate?
What does IntCIS provide you when it comes to SSL certificates?
Conclusion
Closing
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Introduction
While running a business making the customers and visitors feeling safe while they visit your website is important. Without any doubt obtaining the trust of your customer in your business is the top priority. One of the best ways to assure a secure environment is to turn on SSL encryption to your website.
In this article, we are going to discuss what is SSL, the perks of using SSL, how you add it to your website, and many more things. Before moving ahead of the discussion let us know what actually an SSL is.
What is SSL?
SSL is an acronym used for “Secure Socket Layer” and is cryptographic encryption between two devices making the information secure. Without SSL, anyone can check the information in plain text over your server that also includes passwords, credit card numbers that can be stolen easily. This makes it mandatory for websites to have certificates for SSL encryption installed as it helps secure the data packets transferred over the network. Let us put more light on what an SSL certificate is,
What is an SSL certificate?
SSL certificates are digital certificates that indicate your website identity and enables a secure encrypted connection. SSL creates an encrypted link between the web server and a browser that makes the transfer of information more secure.
SSL makes it more secure to submit any information such as passwords, card details over the server, or any sensitive data. Whenever you add SSL to your website your URL changes from HTTP to HTTPS and the ‘S’ stands for secure in HTTPS, which makes visitors easy to recognize that your website is secure and can be trusted. Having a website that is secured with a trademark makes it more comfortable for users to share data.
Companies and organizations usually add SSL certificates for secure online transactions that help in maintaining a safe environment for the users and any kind of theft are prevented.
Making it simple, SSL makes the connection secure and encrypted that prevents hackers from reading the information that is transmitted over the network between two systems.
Why do you need an SSL certificate?
SSL certificates protect sensitive information and make it important to have one. These are small reasons you need an SSL certificate,
- For keeping data secure between two servers and make secure transmission
- Increase your SEO rankings as sites with SSL certificates are taken into consideration much more.
- Enhanced customer trust as having an SSL certificate provides them with a safer environment.
- Improved conversion rates
What information does an SSL certificate contain?
SSL certificates contain the following information,
- The domain name to which the SSL certificate was issued.
- The organization and device it’s issued to.
- Digital signature of the certificate authority
- Subdomains that are associated with your website
- The expiry date of your certificate.
- The public key to the SSL certificate and the private key is issued to the person in authority
These are the information that is available on SSL certificates and the private key is used to decrypt the data that is encrypted in the public key.
Why do you need an SSL certificate?
Websites need SSL certificates to keep your data secure, have verification for the ownership of the website, and prevent attackers from creating a fake version of your website that uses trust towards your organization to fraud them.
Whenever a website uses a user id, login, or enter personal data such as credit card numbers, or any other confidential information you need to keep your information private and secure.
The most important fact with SSL certificates is that your HTTP turns to HTTPS as we discussed earlier. The URLs with HTTP are not secure and trustworthy to enter any personal data and carry out business.
SSL certificates help you in securing information such as login credentials, online money transfers or credit card details, legal contracts or documents, and any other confidential or proprietary information that you share over the network.
The key factors that an SSL certificate is needed for are,
- Encryption
SSL makes encryption possible by the public and private keys that the certificate contains.
- Authentication
SSL verifies that the client is directed to the main server that owns the domain not any fake server on the same name to carry out any attacks on your website. Domain spoofing is greatly avoided through SSL certificates.
How to obtain an SSL certificate?
To obtain a valid SSL certificate, you can obtain it from certificate authorities. The certificate authorities can be any trusted third-party organization that gives you an SSL certificate. The authorities also digitally sign the certificate with their private key and allow your device to verify it. You need to pay a certain fee for obtaining an SSL certificate from the providers.
After the certificate is issued, you need to activate it on your website server. Your hosting providers usually handle the work for you. Once an SSL certificate is activated to your website you can reload your website and check whether your HTTP is converted to HTTPS and your traffic will be exchanging data over an encrypted network.
What are the types of SSL certificates?
Taken into consideration, there are six types of SSL certificates that are provided by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA), they are,
- Extended Validation Certificate (EV SSL)
This is the highest-ranking and most expensive SSL certificate among all six SSL certificates. It is usually used for high-profile websites that collect data from the users and involve online payments more in their website.
When this certificate is installed, the certificate displays the padlock, HTTPS, name of business, and country of the browsers.
For installing an EV SSL certificate, you must go through a standardized identity verification process to confirm that the legal rights provided to the SSL certificate are actually the owner of the domain and has exclusive rights over it.
- Organization validated certificate (OV SSL)
For the verification of this SSL certificate, the process and level are the same as the EV SSL certificate. To obtain OV SSL one should go through a substantial validation process.
After the certificate is installed, the information that is displayed over the certificate is the website owner information that distinguishes it from malicious sites.
OV SSL is the second most expensive certificate and its basic purpose is to encrypt data that contains sensitive information of the users and encrypt the data while transmission.
Usually, commercial or public-facing websites install an OV SSL certificate to ensure the confidentiality of customer information.
- Domain Validated certificates (DV SSL)
The validation for obtaining this certificate is less and as a result, DV SSL comes with lower encryption and lower assurance due to minimal validation criteria.
DV SSL is usually used for blogs and informative websites that do not take data from users or take payments. This is one of the least expensive SSL certificates and the easiest to obtain. The only criteria for validation are that the owners should prove the ownership of the domain. Compared to OV SSL AND EV SSL it shows only HTTPS and padlocks with no business name displayed.
- Wildcard SSL
Wildcard SSL allows you to secure your domain and sub-domains on a single certificate that is provided by the CA. If you have many sub-domains and you need an inexpensive SSL for your server then Wildcard SSL is the right choice for you. Rather than buying many individual SSL for each sub-domain Wildcard SSL is cost-effective. For example, Wildcard SSL secures all the subdomains such as payments, login, mail, downloads, or many more but that should come under a single domain.
- Multi-domain SSL certificate (MDC)
MDC can be used to secure many domains or sub-domains. It can also include a combination of unique domains and subdomains under a single certificate.
MDC usually does not support sub-domains but if you need to secure your sub-domains with MDC you need to use different hostnames and that should be mentioned in the certificate with the proper specification.
- Unified Communications Certificate (UCC)
UCC can also be considered as Multi-domain SSL certificates. Initially, UCC was discovered to secure Mircosoft Exchange and Live Communication Servers. But now, you can use these certificates to add multiple domains under a single certificate.
UCC is validated and enabled with a padlock.
It is necessary to know about SSL types before you go with any SSL certificate plans to choose a wise one for your business.
What happens when an SSL certificate expires?
SSL certificates once purchased cannot be used for a lifetime, they do expire. The Certificate Authority (CA) gives you an SSL certificate with a lifespan. You need to add more duration to your SSL certificate every time it expires, that is renewing your SSL certificate.
The reason that SSL certificates expire is that information needs to be re-validated to check if it is still accurate. Many things change on the internet, many websites are bought and sold regularly, and if your website changes hands it is important to have the right information of the website owner over the SSL certificate. The main purpose of an expiration period is to authenticate the server and make keep it up-to-date.
How to ensure a website has an SSL certificate?
These are some easy methods through which you can check whether the website has an SSL certificate or not,
- The URL begins with HTTPS rather than HTTP
- A closed padlock emblem is displayed over the address bar
- Browsers indicate warnings if the website is not secure such as a red padlock, or with an open padlock or a warning triangle instead of a padlock emblem.
What does IntCIS provide you when it comes to SSL certificates?
IntCIS provides you with standard SSL certificates that help you secure your content on all IntCIS hosted pages. It gives your visitors peace of mind and confidence that their data is secure with it. We provide all types of SSL certificates that can be used to have a secure data transmission of your website with updates of expiration of your SSL certificates and renewal services.
Conclusion
SSL is important for keeping your data secure and providing users a safe environment. SSL certificates ensure the users that their data is safe. Every genuine website needs an SSL certificate.
Closing
These are the types of SSL and the need for SSL for your website and how it makes your website more secure. IntCIS provides you with any type of SSL services you need.
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