uilding an eCommerce store site he is visiting. Normally,
without SSL would be like information sent from a web
opening up shop in a war browser to a website is sent in
zone—no matter the quality of plain text, easily read by anyone
the product you are selling, who happens to be listening. By
customers won't feel safe doing using SSL, you can provide your
business with you. When making an potential web customers with
online transaction, customers peace of mind, knowing that when
need to know that their sensitive they type in their credit card
information is being transmitted information and click "submit,"
securely to a trusted web site. their information will be
If web users have apprehensions transmitted safely and securely
about sending their credit card to your web site to be processed.
information to your web site,
your potential customers may go The benefit of SSL is two-fold.
elsewhere, and sales will be First, secure certificates which
lost. SSL certificates provide a make SSL possible must be
way to build trust between you obtained through issuing
and your customers by securing authorities such as VeriSign and
transactions and signifying that Thawte. These authorities will
your site has been deemed only issue certificates to
trustworthy by an online trust companies they find legitimate
authority. and trustworthy. Through the
issuing process customers can be
SSL stands for Secure Sockets assured that your web site is
Layer and has been the standard trustworthy because a trusted
for secure internet transactions authority has given its stamp of
since 1994. SSL is a protocol for approval. Second, by using SSL,
encrypting the data sent between data is sent in an encrypted
a user's web browser and the web form, so it cannot be easily
deciphered by anyone but the
intended recipient. 3. The customer's browser and the
web site exchange encryption keys
Who Needs SSL? whichallow them to transmit
encrypted data that can only be
Any web site that sends or decrypted with these keys.
receives sensitive information
such as credit card numbers 4. An SSL connection is
should use SSL. All sections of established, and the browser and
the web site need not be secure, server begin communicating
only the pages transmitting the securely.
sensitive data.
How to Get Started Using SSL on
How It Works (The Technical Your Web Site Contact your
Details) webmaster and request a CSR
(Certificate Signing Request).
1. A customer comes to a web site The CSR is a block of unreadable
and begins the check-out process. text that you will need in order
The check-out process will to get a secure certificate. Go
transfer the customer to a secure to a trusted authority (We
page indicated by https:// in the recommend www.verisign.com or
URL and a padlock or key icon in www.thawte.com.) and purchase a
the browser, signifying that the secure certificate. During the
connection is secure. check-out process, you will be
asked for your CSR. After you
2. The web site sends the have been verified by the issuer,
customer's browser a digital you will be sent a digital
certificate, and the customer's certificate. Give this
browser checks to make sure the certificate to your webmaster to
certificate is authentic. install. (Note: Your site must
have a unique IP address to use webmaster.)
SSL. If you do not know if you
have a unique IP, contact your
About the Author:
Visit: http://praxisworks.net/ We are a group of designers and programmers. We all work for a company called Praxis Design Studios, it is a design firm that specializes in web development, graphic design, and any thing else creative you can throw at us. We decided to do a blog for several reasons, so we got motivated and started one.
Read more articles by:
Josh Moore
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
