Trusted Root SSL

Trusted Root – what is that?

This is a question that might stump most people, even those who might be well acquainted with the internet.

The reason for this is that Trusted Root is not an oft used term. Trusted Root refers to Trusted Root Certificate which is related to website security.

A Root Certificate is either an unsigned public key certificate or a self-signed certificate. It is generally part of a public key infrastructure scheme. A company that owns a Root Certificate is generally called a Certification Authority because it normally has rights to issue multiple certificates based on its Root Certificate. When the Root Certificate is widely recognised and trusted, it automatically becomes a Trusted Root Certificate.

Every website that involves online transactions, either monetary or information related requires a secure way of transmitting data. This is achieved through data encryption which is also known as “Secured Socket Layer” or SSL. When a website is SSL secured, the indication for this is generally in the form of an SSL certificate.

SSL Certificates can only be issued by the Certification Authorities. As stated above, the CAs would normally own a Trusted Root CA Certificate. For an SSL certificate to be really effective, the Trusted Root CA Certificate on which it is based must be recognised and present in all web browsers.

Let us understand the reason behind this…

When a website with an SSL certificate is loaded into the web browser, it is the web browser that decided whether to accept the SSL certificate or not. For this decision, the web browser generally turns to its internal records of Trusted Root Certificates. Every browser comes with a list of Trusted Root Certificates which are pre-recorded and recognised by the browser vendor. another is chained root certificate.

If the Trusted Root CA Certificate of an SSL Certificate is present in the web browser, the SSL Certificate will be recognised and accepted by the browser. The more number of browsers in which the Trusted Root CA Certificate is present, the higher the acceptance of the SSL Certificates issued by that CA! This is known as “browser ubiquity”.

Most of the major current CAs such as VeriSign, GeoTrust, Thawte, RapidSSL, etc. can claim 99.9% browser recognition rates. This is because they have been around for a long time and have now formed relations with most browser vendors who recognise these CAs are being trustworthy and stable.

As a result, whenever the browser vendors create a new version of their browsers, they automatically include the Trusted Root CA Certificates of these CAs in the list of recognised Trusted Root Certificates.

When an SSL certificate is based on a Trusted Root CA Certificate, the website into which it is integrated becomes that much more trustworthy and secure. The stability and trustworthiness of the CA in turn carries through to the website and inspires trust in website visitors.

If you have a website for which you are looking to get an SSL certificate, you should ensure that the SSL certificate you opt for is issued by a CA that owns its Trusted Root CA Certificate. Only such an SSL certificate can provide you industry standard security. You can find difference between chained root single root here.

Order SSL certificates based on Trusted Root CA Certificates here