How SSL Ensures Secure Internet Communications

By Henry Scott


Often, online shoppers are hesitant to provide personal information over the Internet knowing that they do not know who they are dealing with. Anyone can make a website and boast of imagined credentials that Internet users become wary when dealing with virtual stores. To address this issue, owners of commercial websites can now guarantee secure communications by obtaining digital certifications like SSL.

SSL is the acronym for Secure Sockets Layer. This type of digital certification serves as the Internet protocol for secure transmission of information. It converts the information into encrypted messages through a secure hypertext transmission protocol. This explains why the web address of websites with SSL certificates starts with "https" instead of "http". The letter "s" obviously stands for secure.

SSL certificates contain the following information:

The web address for which the certificate was issued.

The owner of the certificate. This could be a person or an entity.

The complete address of the owner of the certificate.

SSL lets website owners authenticate their site. The digital certification on their server communicates their website's authenticity to their visitors' web browsers, validating that the visitor is dealing with an authorized seller or business and not a deceitful site asking for personal information such as credit card details.

Another thing is, websites with digital certifications keep "private communication" private. Everything transmitted is encrypted to make sure that only the authorized person can open the information using the right session keys.

Online visitors also benefit from SSL-certified websites. Below are the 3 major benefits customers can get from SSL-certified websites:

1. Authentication. A secure website provides digital certificates and seeks confirmation details to ensure secure transactions.

2. Message privacy. Authorized people are provided with special keys so they can access the encrypted data. This guarantees that unauthorized people or parties cannot view the data.

3. Message integrity. Although accessing information over the Internet seems so easy, with digital confidential information cannot be tampered.

Digital certifications provide mutual benefits to website owners and shoppers. For businesses online, these enable their sales to increase. And for online consumers, they are assured that their personal information is protected every time they send it over the Internet.




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