SSL Certificate

SSL Certificates are security certificates used to validate the security level of a website. They are a must for every website that has some sort or financial or data transaction going on.

SSL stands for “Secure Socket Layer”. This term indicates that a website is working with encryption technology. When a website transmits data through the secure socket layer (SSL) the data is jumbled up and undecipherable by anyone. It needs a particular key for decryption which is only available with the server that is linked to the SSL certificate on the website.

SSL Certificates are issued by Certificate Authorities (CA) who are generally companies that have been authorized to certify the security of websites. The CAs have a Trusted Root CA Certificate on the basis of which they issue an SSL Certificate. A Trusted Root CA Certificate is generally a public key certificate or a privately signed certificate that is recognized as being trustworthy by multiple sources.

Trusted Root Certificates are recognised by most applications and devices that use secured data technology. The best example of such an application is web browsers. Trusted Root Certificates are certificates that are present and included in the internal lists of the web browsers and recognised as being trustworthy and stable.

So an SSL Certificate that is issued by a CA that owns a Trusted Root is highly credible and recognised by most major web browsers and applications. Examples of such SSL Certificates would be the ones issued by CAs like VeriSign, GeoTrust, RapidSSL and Thawte.

SSL Certificates can be either Single Root or Chained Root. Single Root SSL Certificates are those that are issued by CAs that own a Trusted Root CA Certificate. Such SSL Certificates are verified directly via the Trusted Root CA Certificate and so don’t have to pass through a chain before being verified by the browser.

Chained Root SSL Certificates on the other hand are issued by CAs that don’t own a Trusted Root CA Certificate. This type of SSL Certificates are generally based on other SSL Certificates which are then verified by a Trusted Root CA Certificate. CAs issuing Chained Root SSL Certificates normally have a tie-up with a CA owning a Trusted Root Certificate. So at the time of connectivity, the browser has to go through a chain before it can verify the validity of the Chained Root SSL Certificate.

Single Root SSL Certificates are preferred over Chained Root SSL Certificates because the former are more trustworthy and stable. Additionally, it is easier to acquire and install a Single Root SSL Certificate than a Chained Root SSL Certificate.

The encryption technology that is currently the standard in SSL Certificates is 128 Bit. However the demand for higher level 256 Bit encryption is also steadily rising. Most SSL Certificates come with a Site Seal that indicates that the website is secured by an SSL Certificate. This site seal provides visibility to the security of the site and inspires confidence in visitors.

For every internet entrepreneur who owns or plans to own an e-commerce website, SSL certification is indispensable. If you are one of them, you too should get an SSL certificate.

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