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Article number: kb-26
Q. What is SSL? What do I need to know?
A.SSL (pronounced as separate letters) short for Secure Sockets Layer, is the industry standard for transmitting sensitive information via a server or your website and a user's browser. Information that needs to be encrypted includes any payment information, login information, credit cards, social security numbers etc. By convention, URLs that require an SSL connection start with https: instead of http:. If a website does not have a secured socket layer, information is then sent in the clear.
An SSL Certificate is an additional document that must be purchased to display on your secured pages so that a customer may click the lock icon on the lower right hand corner of their browser to see that they are currently protected by an SSL encrypted session. This key will display your current SSL Certificate information. Certifying authorities such as
http://www.thawte.com will only issue these to either companies or legally accountable individuals.
What you need to know:
1. You must purchase and renew your SSL certificate in order to accept credit card information online.
2. And, when you register your domain, your registration information must match your business documentation or you will not be issued a certificate. For example, if you company is My Company, Inc. and you register your domain name as Your Company and forget the "Inc." you will have to update to your registrar information before purchasing the certificate. Also, if you move, you must update your corporate records with your new address. Domain registration and company information must match exactly.
3. Why do I get a warning for my website email login and mail client? Don't worry, these pages are SSL pages, however, since these are not public pages, an SSL Certificate is not necessary. (For more info click here).
Article number: kb-26