SSL and Security
SSL is the acronym for Secure Sockets Layer. It is used for securing the encrypted link between a web server and a browser. It is also defined as a means to manage the security of a message transmission on the internet. Online transactions are increasing by the hour and in order to ensure that all of these are being done in a secure environment, SSL is useful. SSL and security go hand in hand and the following lines will explain how.
The whole method is based on public key cryptography. Usually when 2 parties who have not met wish to share confidential information, they share a password which is used to encrypt and decrypt the same. However, it becomes very difficult to let each other know of this password. With SSL, each of them will have a public and a private key.
Company
When the company wants to secure the information which needs to be sent to a server, it approaches a reliable third party company, such as Godaddy. This company then checks the identity of the former company and whether it can be allowed to use the domain. The next step is that the third party gives a new public key to the company post certification. The information on the certificate is then secured with a private key.
Client
When the client wishes to connect with the company, it visits the special port that is for SSL only. The company then sends the public key to the client. The client then inspects it and proceeds further if it is sure that the information is genuine. After this is done, the server sends a password to the client which has to be decrypted using the public key.
Advantages of SSL
Authenticate the server – The server is deemed authentic with the help of SSL certificate. The company as well as the customers will get the required security as all the information which is stored in the server cannot be used by a fraudster. Since these are encrypted and can be read only a public key, they are perfectly safe.
Conversations can be confidential – Most of the online transactions are made using credit cards. When a site has an SSL certification, it means that all the personal information about a user can be decoded only by the person who has the encryption key.
