Benefits of having SSL secured website – encryption, authentication, boost search ranking, experience safe shopping and avoid the hackers.
SSL stands for Secure Socket Layers and is a public key infrastructure that uses the RSA method of encryption and authentication via security certificates.
It helps to establish a secure connection between the client and the server through the secure protocol HTTPS. It is a perfect choice for protecting sensitive information, such as customer contact details and credit card details.
The public key infrastructure presents the use of two keys: the public and private keys which are used to encrypt and decrypt the information respectively.
Secure access to data is ensured with the help of certificates issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) which is shared only with the specific domain or server. The exchange of data happens after the certificate verification and thus passes through an SSL connection privately and securely. So, it is necessary that you understand the basic working of the SSL security mechanism.
The basic working model of an SSL transaction is depicted below.
- The client requests server identification from the web server.
- The server sends the SSL certificate issued by the CA to the client.
- The client receives the certificate copy and sends an acknowledgment. The received certificate is verified and the resulting message is sent back to the server.
- The server sends a digital signature to the client once it receives the verification acknowledgment and initiates the encrypted information exchange between the client and the server.
The Benefits of SSL Certificates
SSL is a simple yet secure channel to transmit the data securely. It is valuable to both customers and businesses considering the level of security it brings to their cloud-based transactions.
Kick out the Hackers
You have to be extremely cautious about phishing sites. These are an almost perfect replica of an original, authentic site and have many techniques to lure you into providing your sensitive information.
But SSL identifies what we humans will not be able to and ensures that these fake sites will never see the light of day.
It is difficult and impossible for fake sites to acquire SSL certificates and when customers are warned of the absence of SSL certificate, they will avoid falling prey to these fake sites.
As well SSL certificate will help you to protect your website from eavesdropping, man-in-middle-attack and sniffing attacks.
Boost Ranking & Increase Brand Value
A few months ago, Google updated its algorithm and added HTTPS as a ranking signal. If your website is secured with SSL certificate and web URL starts with a secure HTTPS protocol, then you will get the ranking advantage in search engines.
Using SSL dramatically improves the perception that users have of your brand. When your site has signed by a trusted third party certificate, your customers are ensured that they are indeed on a valid and trusted site. They will be less worried about security issues and will engage with you more effectively.
Secure Payments to Experience Safe Shopping
No one will dare to send their credit card information over a simple HTTP website. It is also mandatory for a business site to have an SSL certificate to meet the PCI security standards set forth by the payment card industries.
Without the use of SSL, business sites cannot even dream of having a single successful credit card transaction. By implementing SSL, visitors will find your website more trustworthy and experience secure shopping over the HTTPS site.
Build Trust with Extended Authentication
Customers are becoming more and more security aware. As a lot of sensitive information, such as bank passwords and personal details, are exchanged in a cloud platform, a secure authentication mechanism must be provided to ensure data protection.
SSL achieves this feat by issuing a server certificate along with the SSL certificate. This server certificate increases the trust factor of the service provided and helps the customer verify whether you are really who you claim to be.
CAs follows a different validation process to authenticate your business reliability. The process depends on which certificate you choose – domain validation, organization validation, and extended validation. Domain Validation certificate verifies only domain authentication and organization validation certificate validates your business reliability when extended validation (EV) SSL certificate confirms your business existence and trustworthiness by affirming legal documents. It ensures that the site is highly authenticated and secured to carry online transactions by displaying must security trust mark “Green Bar”.
Strongest Encryption to Secure Information
All the information transferred over an SSL connection is encrypted and there is no way an interceptor could decipher your information.
Encryption algorithms like RSA, DSA, and ECC are currently used by most certificate authorities. When the credit card data and other private information will travel between the web server and users’ browser, the site will be secured with robust encryption (for example, SHA256-bit encryption) that left no place for hackers to sniff transmitting information. So you can rest assured that the information will always only reach the intended parties.
Now we all know that HTTPS is a clear indicator of the secured website and no one track your personal information during secure communication channel. It will prove your business authenticity and assure your visitors, the website is genuine and safe to make an online transaction. As a website owner, it’s your responsibility to set up a secure environment for your visitors and customers; therefore you should purchase an SSL certificate from trusted certificate authorities and configure it on your web server.
