Undeniable SSL Certificate Properties
What is a SSL Certificate
What is your identity? This is a document that is recognized by the international community; he is distinguished by great prestige and unshakable reputation. Perhaps the same can be said about the SSL certificate certificate on your site. This is a kind of “identifier”, or “personal certificate” that this site is safe. Again, an SSL certificate does not guarantee that your site will not be hacked, or that it cannot have any vulnerabilities. When a user successfully navigates to a site that displays an SSL certificate, they can make purchases and enter passwords without fear for their data. The certificate itself is a set of files installed on the server. These files are highly unique and highly encrypted.
The principle of operation can be cited as an example: the browser checks the SSL certificate (there is a special protocol 443 for this) of the site that the user visits; if everything is in order and the certificate is valid, the site is marked as safe by the browser. In the address bar you can see such a lock, this means security. If you click on the padlock, information will appear that the connection to this site is secure. If the SSL certificate is OK and valid, then the user’s browser establishes a secure HTTPS connection. The HTTPS protocol is a protocol and, in turn, a special technology that allows a site and users to exchange data in encrypted form. It’s all encrypted – so it’s not available to an attacker.
Does the presence of an SSL affect the operation of the site?
What is the most important feature of SSL? Firstly, it increases the credibility of the site. If you store personal data, for example, you have your own online store with access and working payment methods, you sell goods or provide a paid service, a certificate is required. Why? Everything is simple; bank acquiring services refuse their services to sites without an SSL certificate. Its presence is a mandatory property and an important rule. Their owners will not be able to accept online card payments from visitors – the store will lose part of the potential profit.
When you think through all the steps for your business, you are probably thinking about SEO optimization. It represents some algorithms and a set of rules for how your site can be recognized in the Internet space and its rating can be increased. What is the role of the SSL certificate in this? Obviously, very, very large, because the very presence of an SSL certificate on the site is taken into account by the Google search engine when ranking search results.
I’d also like to give some important aspects that you have when you have an SSL certificate:
- Establishing authenticity and uniqueness. The site is owned by the company that installed the certificate. This means that the company shows the whole world that users, by always clicking on a link or typing a domain into the address bar, get a unique opportunity to visit;
- Message secrecy. The transmitted data cannot be viewed or intercepted by third parties. The uniqueness of the encryption ensures this process;
- Data integrity. The data is transmitted in its entirety and cannot be replaced, lost or changed. This makes it possible to exchange data in a coherent structure, no disturbances;
- A site protected by an SSL certificate inspires more trust among visitors. This is an obvious and very banal fact, but it is no small matter.
A little history of the first appearance and acquaintance with SSL. SSL was originally developed by Netscape Communications to add HTTPS to its Netscape Navigator web browser. Subsequently, based on the SSL 3.0 protocol, the RFC standard was developed and adopted, which received the name TLS. Version 1.0 was never released to the public. Version 2.0 was released in February 1995, but contained many security flaws that led to the development of SSL version 3.0.
SSL version 3.0, released in 1996, provided the basis for the creation of TLS 1.0, an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) protocol standard that was first defined in RFC 2246 in January 1999. Visa, Master Card, American Express and many other organizations are licensed to use the SSL protocol for commercial purposes on the Internet. Thus, SSL is extensible in accordance with the project to support forward and backward compatibility and negotiation between connections in a peer-to-peer network. As of March 2011, according to RFC 6176, TLS clients must not use the SSL 2.0 protocol when requesting a connection to a server, and servers must reject such requests.
Speaking about modern business, we mean several important aspects. These are processes such as: the transfer of confidential information by e-mail or through chats, the collection of such information using a website, electronic signatures for documents, agreements and personal data of employees, and much more – all this has become an integral part of any modern business.
That is why absolutely any business requires a careful attitude and attention to the moments of information transfer security in these areas. Online stores and auctions, payment systems, information systems that use the transfer of confidential data via the Internet in their work, government organizations that operate with personal data.
SSL certificates are issued by those specialized and accredited organizations, the so-called (CC) “Certification Centers”. Here is an example of some of them: Sectigo, RapidSSL, GeoTrust, Thawte and Symantec.
Principles and mechanism of operation of the SSL Certificate
SSL has several components; they can be divided into 2 parts: this is the public part and the secret. Simply put, these parts are two files that are used to encrypt and decrypt the data being sent. These files serve as keys to the data, which is why they are called “public key” and “secret key”. The important part of the certificate that makes up the public key can encrypt the data, but it is impossible to decrypt it. That is, the reverse principle – data decryption remains inaccessible, for security reasons. As for the secret key, it is possible to decrypt the data encrypted with the corresponding public key. That is why the secret key must be carefully stored, protecting it from access to outsiders. It is recommended to use third-party and very secure devices.
In the process of how the communication between the web browser and the web server goes, you need to secure the data. This process looks something like this:
- In the process, when the browser requests a web page that needs to be protected, the web server in turn will pass to the browser information about its certificate and its public key. That is, there is a kind of “dialogue” between the two main chains.
- Then, when the browser receives the public key from the web server, it checks it and then the browser will send its public key to the server. That is – the process of exchanging encryption.
- Next, the server, using the public key received from the browser, will transfer the contents of the requested page and send it to the browser in encrypted form.
- After a successful transfer, the browser has received the encrypted page, decrypts it with its private key and shows it to the user.
- After that, the server will encrypt the data using the public key and send it to the server. The server, having received the data, will apply its secret key to it and decrypt it.
That’s the whole process, which remains in the shadow for the user.
Order free certificate Let’s Encrypt
Let’s Encrypt is a certificate authority from which you can get a free SSL certificate for the site. They are great for small sites where users can leave some personal information: email, passwords, phone number, address. Certificate Authority Let’s Encrypt is ready to issue you a certificate absolutely FREE!
When installing a security certificate on any control panel, when ordering a certificate, you receive the following files:
- certificate.crt – the basis of the certificate for your domain name.
- private.key – the key that was generated when creating the CSR
- ca_bundle.crt – root certificate provided by your certificate authority
This is very useful for you if you own a small website and cannot afford a paid SSL certificate. We give you a free Let Encrypt security certificate for 90 days. Install the free version of Let Encrypt by clicking on the link: