What is SSL Certificate?

An SSL certificate is a kind of unique digital signature for your website. Such a certificate is necessary, first of all, for banks, payment systems and other organizations that work with personal data – to protect transactions and prevent unauthorized access to information.

SSL certificate

An SSL certificate is a kind of unique digital signature for your website. Such a certificate is needed, first of all, for banks, payment systems and other organizations that work with personal data – to protect transactions and prevent unauthorized access to information.

The security of information on the Internet is one of the most serious problems of our time. How to protect your site from information leakage and unauthorized access by third parties? What is an SSL certificate and where can I get it? Why is HTTPS better than HTTP? We offer you material aimed at people with no special technical knowledge and skills.

SSL protocol

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is used by millions of sites to protect data on the Internet. It guarantees a secure connection between the user’s browser and the server. When using the SSL protocol, information is transmitted in encrypted form via HTTPS and can only be decrypted using a special key, unlike the usual HTTP protocol. The SSL protocol requires an Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to be installed on the server.

SSL certificate contains the following information:

• the domain name for which the SSL certificate is issued;
• the legal entity that owns the certificate;
• physical location of the certificate holder (city, country);
• validity period of the certificate;
• details of the supplier of the SSL certificate.

An SSL certificate confirms that the domain belongs to a real company and that its owner has the right to use the secret key legally.

Where to get an SSL certificate:

It used to be difficult to get an SSL certificate, that is, you had to buy it for money (about $ 100 per year). And now it is easy to get an SSSL certificate, which means it is free in almost all hosting services.

In short, an SSL certificate can be obtained from your hosting where your website is located.

Difference between HTTP and HTTPS:

HTTPS is an extension to the HTTP protocol that supports encryption. To prepare a web server to handle HTTPS connections, an administrator must obtain and install a certificate for that web server on the system. With this sorted out. SSL certificate now get it no problem.

What is an SSL certificate? Do I even need him?

This is a digital signature of the site, which is required for secure transmission of data on the network. In simple terms, it provides an encrypted connection between the user and the site.

On some sites, a lock icon is displayed next to the page address in the browser. It comes in green, gold or gray. Sometimes the block is crossed out or not at all, and sometimes a green line appears next to the domain name with the name of the company.

A padlock or a green line means that an SSL certificate is installed on the site and all information is transmitted over a secure protocol. A protocol is such a set of rules; the browser and the server use it to exchange information.

An SSL certificate prevents fraudsters from intercepting or changing personal data of users: contact information, bank card numbers, logins, passwords, email addresses, etc.

This is how a website looks like with an SSL certificate (✅)
and
without SSL certificate (❌):

Why do you need an SSL certificate

An SSL certificate is required to prevent fraudsters from intercepting the personal data they enter on your website. Personal data is logins and passwords from accounts, bank card numbers, e-mail addresses, etc.

This means that an SSL certificate will come in handy on the websites of banks, payment systems, corporations, online stores, social networks, government enterprises, the Internet -forums. , etc.

Secure connection

If the site has an SSL certificate, a secure connection is established between the client browser and the site.

A customer places an order on your website. To pay for the goods, he enters his credit card details. When an order is placed, the information is sent to your web server. At this stage, scammers can intercept it.

SSL encryption

If scammers intercept the information, they will not understand what this means. Because you have a secure connection, that is, an SSL certificate. SSL encryption is much more complicated.

The certificate key is so long that it would take years of continuous brute-force attack for attackers to try out at least half of the options. Hence, a site with an SSL certificate is a reliable and secure site.