Phishing and online fraud has been undermining customer confidence to shop online.  Online shoppers want assurance that their information is secure and they want to feel more confident about entering personal information on sites using security indicators.    Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology eliminates these fears and makes your website visitors to trust you in three essential ways:

• An SSL Certificate establishes a private communication channel enabling encryption of data during online transactions
• Each SSL Certificate contains unique, authenticated information about the certificate owner
• A Certificate Authority (CA) verifies the identity of the certificate owner when it is issued

Adopting SSL technology requires a server to have a digital certificate installed. A digital certificate is an electronic file that serves as a kind of digital passport to assure online shoppers you are indeed who you claim to be prior to the SSL session being established.

Digital certificates are typically signed by an independent and trusted third party known as a Certification Authority (CA) to ensure their validity, such as Verisign, Geotrust or Comodo. These CAs offer a higher standard of authentication by verifying the existence of your business, the ownership of your domain name, and your authority to apply for the certificate

Usefulness of SSL Certificates

SSL Certificates can be used to solve two main security problems

Authentication

proving a company’s (or server’s) identity online and in so doing create a sense of trust and confidence in using a Web site

Encryption

offering protection for the data submitted to a Web site (or between servers) so that in the event of interception, it will be unintelligible without the unique key used for decryption

 Solving these security problems allows online business to protect against the following scenarios:

Spoofing

The low cost of Web site design and ease with which existing pages can be copied makes it all too easy to create illegitimate sites that appear to be published by established organizations.  In fact, con artists have illegally obtained credit card numbers by setting up professional-looking storefronts that mimic legitimate businesses

Unauthorized Disclosure

when information is transmitted “in the clear”, making it possible for hackers to intercept the transmissions and obtain sensitive information from customers

Data alteration

 the content of a transaction can be intercepted and altered en route, either maliciously or accidentally. User names, credit card, and social security numbers as well as currency amounts; indeed any information sent “in the clear” is all vulnerable to alteration 

You will need SSL Certificates if you:

• Accept online orders and credit cards
• Offer a login or sign-in on your website
• Process sensitive data such as passwords and ID numbers
• Need to comply with privacy and security requirements
• Value privacy and expect others to trust you

Types of SSL Certificates

Choose from the various SSL Certificate products available here:

 Product Comparison Chart for VERISIGN SSL Certificates 

Get a snapshot view of Verisign SSL  product features compared side-by-side

Product Comparison Chart for GEOTRUST SSL Certificates 

Get a snapshot view of Geotrust SSL  product features compared side-by-side

Product Comparison Chart for COMODO SSL Certificates 

Get a snapshot view of Comodo SSL  product features compared side-by-side

back to the top