Nowadays almost all websites are secured with SSL. Yet at 4BIS we still regularly receive customers who do not have a secure website, which can be recognized by the HTTPS lock. This is not only unsafe, but also does not work with, for example, the Google Ranking of your web page. But what exactly is SSL or HTTPS, and how does it work?
Answers to your questions
- no secure server connection
- this site cannot provide a secure connection
- ssl connection
- error with ssl connection
- what is ssl certificate
I will leave out the technical details of encryption, otherwise it would be a long math story, but I will tell you how an SSL certificate works and how we use it to set up a secure communication channel.
SSL is short for Secure Socket Layer and is an extension of other existing protocols. For example, there is the web traffic that can be sent via the HTTP protocol. HTTP by itself is not secure. Anyone who can capture HTTP traffic between a server and a browser can also read the content of this HTTP traffic. That is of course not the intention if you exchange sensitive information via this protocol, for example visiting the website of your bank or making a payment in a webshop. Therefore SSL is applied as an extra layer on the HTTP traffic. This upgrades the HTTP protocol to the HTTPS protocol using SSL. The SSL encryption is set up by adding an extra layer over which the unsecured HTTP traffic is routed. By making smart use of prime numbers and mathematical calculations, the traffic sent via the SSL layer has become unusable for anyone who can intercept the traffic.
But this bit of encryption is not the only advantage of SSL. We can also verify the identity of a server via SSL. Using SSL, we can determine whether the website we see is actually the website of, for example, the bank. SSL certificates consist of two main parts: a private key and a public key. A private key is generated by yourself and is nothing more than a series of numbers and letters. This private key, as the name suggests, is not shared with third parties. No one else sees this key. With this private key you then make a CSR – certificate signing request – and submit that request to your CA – certificate authority.
A CA is a company or organization whose job it is to validate the identity of an owner of a domain or web application. In addition, the CA generates a public certificate based on the CSR with the private/public keys it uses. Her keys are special because they are trusted by the RA, root authority. Root Authorities are automatically trusted by, for example, a web browser or other SSL-enabled application. Every web browser or SSL enabled application has a list of the largest root authorities and its certificates. A certificate created by means of one of these certificates is therefore automatically trusted. Certificates work with a hierarchy, your certificate contains a link with all certificates used above it. So it forms a link from your private key to a root authority. A web browser automatically follows this link to eventually arrive at a root authority.
What is SSL
SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer and is an extension of existing Internet communication protocols. SSL ensures, among other things, encryption within the HTTP protocol. An SSL certificate provides the ‘HTTPS lock’ in your browser when a website is opened via a secure connection.
AVG Warning! If your website uses a contact form, you are obliged to have a secure connection to exchange contact details. An SSL certificate is what you need!
Prevent the message “your connection is not private” on your website with 4BIS Webhosting
This signed key is your public key. This is connected to your private key but does not contain this private key. The public key is installed in the web server and will be presented to a visitor of the website or application to verify the identity of the server or application. It is equivalent to showing your ID to someone who asks for verification of your identity. It is the same in an SSL certificate. It contains the parent certificate authority and it knows your data. As with an ID, the issuing authority knows whether an ID has been issued by it and is valid. This is how it works with an SSL certificate. The authority that issued it is listed in the certificate and is consulted to determine its authenticity.
A big advantage of the private / public key pairs is that they are linked to each other. As a visitor to a website, the web server gives you the public key. You can verify this on the basis of the parent authorities. The web server encrypts the traffic based on the private key. You can decrypt the traffic by means of the public key and so the circle is complete. Finally, the public key is created on the basis of the private key, the CSR and then approved and verified by the certificate authotiry. This thus provides proof of identity and a method of building trust. In simple words, this is how SSL certificates play a role in the security of the internet and can ensure that you are connected to the right website.
As you can read, you can hardly do without an SSL certificate these days. Certainly for webshops where you send financial data, it is impossible not to offer a certificate. That is why we at 4BIS Innovations offer a free SSL certificate with all our web hosting packages. Because we believe that all internet traffic should be safe.
Do you have a project or website in which you need SSL-certificate and you have no idea how to proceed, please contact our team quickly and we will see what we can do for each other.
