Understanding the Basics of SSL Certificates

There is a lot of talk these days in regards to how important installing an SSL certificate is to keep your website and online activities protected against security
threats abroad. Whether it is to ensure nobody hacks onto your website and steals your private company information or to protect the customers and visitors to your website from having their private information stolen, the need to have some sort of internet security is vital.

In recent years, SSL Brands like Comodo and Norton have developed several key upgrades to develop highly effective SSL Security Certificates which truly capture nearly 100% security for a website and the visitors to those sites. But, many people simply don’t speak the computer lingo or understand what exactly an SSL Certificate does.

So, in order to simplify this is easy to understand language, here are a few basics on what an SSL certificate is and what it does best.
In simple terms, a SSL Certificate is a digital computer file which is comprised of very small pieces of html computer code (also known as the language the computer speaks) which serves two primary functions:

• Authentication and Verification; this is used to identify the individual user or the website itself that physically displays to users when they access a website. It tells the user that the website they are using is a secured website which uses a particular SSL security program. This SSL Certificate is displayed in the URL of the prior to the https indication on the website URL. If you click on that box (usually green in color) it will tell you about the specific security features that are activated.
• Data Encryption; the second thing that SSL Security Certificate does is create an encrypted or coded content on a website which can’t be read, or stolen by anybody or any other device that does not have direct access to the website you are monitoring. Here is a better way to explain how this feature works.

Let’s say for example, you are sitting in an airport with your laptop and you are planning on buying a new pair of shoes from Zappos.com. You find the shoes you want to purchase and you enter your secured information such as your credit card, birthdate, address and other vital information and submit this information for payment. If the website’s content was not encrypted with the use of this type of SSL Certificate, then anybody who has access to the same internet connection as you have can log into your computer (without you knowing) and have that displayed computer screen on their computer.

This would provide them with all the information they would need in order to steal this private information. The Data encryption blocks this or provides a shield of protection from occurring.