What Does SSL Certificate Mean?

Have you ever experienced the failure of accessing a certain webpage, regardless of how excited you are about its content, because of a dire warning indicating that the site does not come with an SSL Certificate? You have probably had this warning several times over your frequent use of the Internet. You understand that you cannot access the website. But do you know and understand why you cannot do so?

SSL refers to Secure Sockets Layer. It is a widely acclaimed and used security protocol developed by Netscape in 1994. SSL is an encryption technology that ensures a secure exchange of your web server and a foreign browser. It allows for the exchange to happen without the possibility of other external users tampering with the information or meandering through messages that are not meant for them.

Even if you do not come face to face with an actual warning that the site you are visiting is not SSL certified, you can still distinguish between a one that is and another that is not. In the URL, you can check how the web addresses start. If the address starts with an "http", it means that the site does not have an SSL Certificate. On the other hand, if the URL starts with "https" then the web page has an SSL Certificate.

The primary purpose that SSL Certificates serve is to ensure your security as an Internet user. Definitely, you do not want to have hackers on your tail. But you have so many times indiscriminately enlisted information about yourself when you sign up for blogs, online newsletters and social networking sites. SSL Certificate therefore ensures that this information is not accessed freely by visitor web users. It would decrease the risk of losing the valuable information.

For websites used by businesses, an SSL Certificate also helps in allowing the transmittal of sensitive information like card numbers, bank reference documents and personal details without risking them to be utilized for negative purposes by the wrong set of individuals.

Security is really difficult to come by in the Internet world. You are suggested to create passwords that would not easily be guessed by other people. But aside from securing your own emails and websites, you also have to ensure the security of the very exchanges you have with other users all over the web. Do not put yourself at risk and always be on guard especially in the hacker-filled Web world.

Hello. I'm Ben Vestic, a business improvement nut and mechanic of small business website design. I like to write ways in which other owners can improve their brands and procedures to take their company up a notch.