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SSL Certificates - Edinburgh hosts hundreds of thousands of eCommerce and other types of websites. Visitors to websites are paying more attention to the security of the website they are visiting. The same applies for browsers, search engine spiders and crawlers, security and firewall systems and much more,

In this ever-more-wary and security conscious world of the internet, websites which have been vetted for authenticity and verified for ownership will command more visitors. Where online retailing is concerned, displaying the SSL Certificate will ensure you command more business sales and revenue.

While security would appear to be far more important for retailing sites dealing in financial transactions, it is true to say that it is rapdily becoming more important for all websites as internet users become more fearful of websites that are carrying viruses, or are owned by unscrupulous owners.

Adding an SSL Certificate to your website helps to prove that you are a legitimate and identifiable web-site owner, vetted by 3rd party security bodies.

This in essence is why you should consider SSL Security Certification for your site. Webscene have partnered with one of the best known names in the industry for SSL Certification. We now offer GEO Trust certificates online.

Contact Us to place your order or to get help with your choices.

Overview

• What are SSL and Digital Certificates?
• When should SSL be used and what can it secure?
• So what are the practical applications of SSL Certificates?

What are SSL and Digital Certificates?

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a protocol developed by Netscape in 1996 which quickly became the method of choice for securing data transmissions across the Internet. SSL is an integral part of most Web browsers and Web servers and makes use of the public-and-private key encryption system developed by Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman.

In order to make an SSL connection, the SSL protocol requires that a server should have a digital certificate installed. A digital certificate is an electronic file that uniquely identifies individuals and servers. Digital certificates serve as a kind of digital passport or credential which authenticate the server prior to the SSL session being established.

Typically, digital certificates are signed by an independent and trusted third party to ensure their validity. The "signer" of a certificate is known as a Certification Authority (CA), such as VeriSign, thawte and GeoTrust.

When should SSL be used and what can it secure?

There are two main online security problems that SSL certificates help solve:

• Authentication - proving a company's (or server's) identity online and in so doing create a sense of trust and confidence in using a Web site.
• Encryption - offering protection for the data submitted to a Web site (or between servers) so that in the event of interception, it will be unintelligible without the unique key used for decryption.

• Spoofing - The low cost of Web site design and ease with which existing pages can be copied makes it all too easy to create illegitimate sites that appear to be published by established organizations. In fact, con artists have illegally obtained credit card numbers by setting up professional-looking storefronts that mimic legitimate businesses.
• Unauthorized Disclosure - when information is transmitted "in the clear", making it possible for hackers to intercept the transmissions and obtain sensitive information from customers.
• Data alteration - the content of a transaction can be intercepted and altered en route, either maliciously or accidentally. User names, credit card, and social security numbers as well as currency amounts; indeed any information sent "in the clear" is all vulnerable to alteration.

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