With the immense importance of the internet for shopping, educating and interacting with the world around us it is important that we can trust the websites we use. As a developer or as someone running a website it is your responsibility to implement security measures that protect your users and customers and their sensitive data. The first step in creating a secure website starts with an SSL certificate - they are crucial to overall web security but also provide a lot of additional benefits.

 

Data Encryption

SSL certificates encrypt data transmitted between a website and a user's browser, making it unreadable to anyone trying to intercept it. This means SSL is trusted with protecting sensitive data like credit card numbers, personal information, login information and the latest picture of your grandma's dog.

The internet by default uses an HTTP protocol to communicate, however HTTP isn't secure and shares data over plain text making it very susceptible to cyber attacks. An SSL certificate uses the TLS cryptographic protocol to encrypt information such as names, addresses and your mum's latest facebook update. This means even if the data is intercepted, all that a hacker will see is random string of characters.

Company Authentication

SSL certificates are issues by trusted third-party Certificate Authorities that verify and validate SSL applicants based on the requested validation level. Internet browsers uses the details of a websites associated certificate to establish a secure connecting between the computer and the server.
SSL Certificates can boost user trust and they can be confident that they are interacting with the correct website and not a fraudulent site. With Business and Extended SSL Validation available any visitors will be safe in the knowledge the website is legitimate.

Online Visibility and Compliance

SSL certificates demonstrate a commitment to security, enhancing a website's reputation and trustworthiness. Customers are more likely to perceive businesses with SSL certificates and reliable and professional.
Many industries have specific regulations regarding data security. SSL certificates can help businesses comply with these requirements. For example, businesses accepting credit card payments must comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which mandates the usel of SSL.

A lot of modern browsers like chrome will warn users when entering a website if it does not have SSL, this can scare away potential traffic from your website.

Choosing the Right SSL Certificate