If you are in the process of setting up your website and you feel you may need an SSL Certificate, then read on.
SSL means Secure Sockets Layer, and it provides secure technology for creating encrypted links between a browser and a web server. This encryption allows data to be sent over the internet.
Should your website require your users to enter personal information, or even an email address, it is recommended that you install an SSL Certificate on the server that hosts your website.
Every website that processes online payments or accepts online ordering should have an SSL Certificate to ensure the privacy of customer information. A secure website usually displays as https:// with a small padlock icon in the browser’s address bar, and everyone should make a habit of checking for this.
This is how an SSL works; although it looks like a laborious business, the electronic transference is completed in seconds:
- IB → WS: Internet Browser (IB) requests a secure page with
https://from the Website Server (WS). - WS → IB: Website server sends its Public Key with the SSL Certificate.
- The internet browser checks the validity of the certificate’s expiry date, website’s common name, issuing authority, and ensures that it has not been revoked.
- IB → WS: Internet browser creates a Symmetric Key which it sends to the website server.
- The website server decrypts the Symmetric Key using its Private Key.
- WS → IB: Website server sends the symmetric key encrypted page back to the internet browser.
- Internet browser decrypts the page using its symmetric key and displays the resultant information to the user.
NOTE: Should any of the browser’s SSL validity checks fail, the user will receive an error message immediately.