What You Need to Know to Protect Your Data by SSL Certificates

  • Posted on November 22, 2023
  • /Under General

A website without SSL encryption can be a disaster for your business. In fact, it can lead to lost customers and damage your reputation.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and is the predecessor to modern TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocols. It encrypts data sent between browsers and websites to prevent cybercriminals from intercepting or reading information.

  1. Encryption

The world is full of things that we want to keep private, from personal messages to financial data and photos. But without encryption, criminals could easily steal that information and use it for nefarious purposes. Encryption is the process of changing information into a form that can only be read by those with special knowledge.

SSL certificates are responsible for encrypting data that is transmitted between websites and users’ browsers. When a website is secure, Internet users will see a padlock icon and HTTPS protocol in the browser’s address bar. This lets them know that the website is trusted and the site’s data is protected.

However, it’s important to note that malicious websites can also obtain SSL certificates, including Domain Validated (DV) certificates from certificate authorities that don’t moderate what sites get certificates. In addition, SSL certificate can’t protect web applications against attacks such as SQL injection or malware. To do that, you’ll need a solution such as FortiWeb, which guards your web applications and APIs against the OWASP Top 10 threats.

  1. Authentication

Authentication is one of the most important functions performed by SSL. It verifies the identity of a website to protect it from cyber attacks and ensure that it is the true owner. It’s accomplished by using a public key and a private key, which are combined together to create a cryptographic signature.

The private key is held by the web server and the public key is included in the certificate so that a browser can establish an encrypted connection with the website. This prevents hackers from intercepting and stealing data that travels to and from a web server.

When a website is secured by SSL, it displays a padlock icon and HTTPS in the address bar. This gives users confidence that the site is authentic and safe to use. It also helps companies build trust with their customers and comply with privacy laws. Different types of certificates use varying validation processes to verify a website’s reliability, including domain validation, organization validation, and extended validation.

  1. Reputation

Reputation is the way people perceive an individual, group or entity. It affects phenomena from competitive settings like markets to cooperative ones like companies, organizations, and communities. Reputation also plays a role in how people behave and make decisions.

SSL certificates can prevent hackers from intercepting sensitive data transferred to and from a website. They offer a layer of security that protects your customers’ personal information and keeps you compliant with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS.

When choosing an SSL certificate, the first thing you need to consider is your business needs and budget. There are multiple options available, from domain validated (DV) certificates that provide basic protection without visual cues and ties to your organization, to extended validation (EV) certificates that require the highest level of verification. The right option will help build customer trust, increase website security, and boost your SEO ranking on Google. Choosing the wrong option can cost you money and cause security issues for your site.

  1. Compatibility

SSL protects your customer’s information by scrambling it into a coded format that can only be unscrambled by its intended recipient (other computers or servers). It also stops cybercriminals from impersonating your website and stealing sensitive information like address, email, and credit card numbers.

SSL certificates also establish trust between your customers and you. This is especially important for ecommerce businesses that need to verify a visitor’s identity and process payments online. When a visitor sees a green padlock, branded URL bar, or another visual indicator that the site is secure, they’ll know their information is protected and that you are a trustworthy business.

An SSL certificate is a data file hosted on the website’s origin server that encrypts and authenticates a web page connection via the Secure Sockets Layer protocol. The certificate contains a public key and the website’s private key, which create a cryptographic handshake to secure data sent from the server to the browser.