It is essential for a website to support its security verification with an SSL certificate. As search engines are marking 'non-secure' websites, all websites that do not possess an SSL certificate will have HTTP encryption.
The SSL certificate is a digital certificate that identifies a website's authenticity. The full form of SSL is Secure Sockets Layer. It is a security protocol that builds an encrypted link between the web browser and the webserver. The SSL certificate is an essential component for organizations to conduct secure online transactions. It also helps to keep the customer's identity discrete and secure.
This certificate prevents criminals from tampering with valuable transferred information between different systems. The padlock icon in the address bar, next to the URL identifies whether a website has an SSL certificate or not. It is recognized with HTTPS encryption.
This is a common requirement for websites that handle sensitive information including user credit card details, financial data, home addresses, or other personal details.
An SSL Certificate protects your website against phishing, online threats, data breaches, and more. Since the primary objective for websites remains data handling and SSL Certificate protects information through safe encryption of data transfer between users and websites. The browser verifies every website's SSL Certificate validity based on online traffic. The data is sent back to the desired server that decrypts the data using sensitive public and private keys.
SSL Certificate encryption benefits include:
- Offers 256-bit of high encryption to protect user data
- Protects user information from hackers and phishing through strong encryption
- Eliminates the chances of website attacks from man-in-the-middle class attacks
- Offers positive influence for Google evaluation
- Ensures a safe shopping experience for users
- Establishes business authentication and boosts brand reputation through Business from Trusted Certificate Authority (CA) validation
- EV SSL Certificate websites display Green Address Bar apart from the organization name
- Builds trust and connections with the 'secure connection' sign
The cost of an SSL Certificate varies depending on the authority that issues. The pricing differs from USD$ 50–200/year. There are add-on services that could affect the cost of the SSL Certificate.
Most importantly, SSL Certificate saves money due to a security breach. It is a legal problem that could lead to data compromise of the users. An SSL Certificate prevents such security breaches, to begin with.