Data breaches are costly and more common than one might think, with six million records lost or stolen every day. While a business owner can take many steps to make a website more secure for customers, nothing is more crucial than installing an SSL certificate on a site. How do SSL certificates work and what do they have to do with HTTPS? Read on to find out why these factors are crucial to making your website more secure and ultimately establishing trust with your customers.
What Is SSL and How Does It Relate to HTTPS?
SSL stands for “Secure Sockets Layer,” which is a type of digital security that allows encrypted communication to occur between a website and a web browser. While you may already be familiar with HTTP, HTTPS is its secure extension, and is only available on websites that install and configure an SSL certificate. An SSL certificate refers to a file installed on a website’s origin server, which contains information about the identity of the website owner and proves the integrity of a website.
A secure connection is crucial when transmitting sensitive information such as personal data or payments. SSL certificates make it difficult for hackers to spy on the connection and steal the data. It’s easy to tell if a website is using an SSL certificate if the website URL begins with HTTPS or there is a little padlock icon in the URL window.
How SSL Works
When a browser accesses a website that is secured by SSL, the browser and the web server establish a secure connection using a process that is often called an “SSL Handshake.” More commonly, this is becoming known as a “TLS Handshake,” referring to SSL’s updated terminology, “Transport Layer Security.” This handshake is similar to a handshake that may establish trust between business partners. It verifies the server, decides how data will be encrypted and ensures the connection is secure before transferring any information.
How HTTPS Works
HTTPS refers to “Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure,” and is the secure version of HTTP, which is the primary protocol used to transfer data between a web browser and a website. It uses encryption protocols enabled by SSL to encrypt communications through public and private keys. When sensitive information is sent over an HTTPS connection, it is protected from hackers looking to steal data. As more websites implement encryption, companies are seeing an increased need to redirect HTTPS links to make their websites more secure.
How (and Why) to Install an SSL Certificate
According to HubSpot Research, up to 85 percent of people will not continue browsing if a site is not secure. Not only do SSL certificates boost customer trust, but they also have a positive impact on sales. Even more important, SSL is part of Google’s search ranking algorithm, which means it can positively boost SEO and drive organic traffic to your website. urllo makes it easy to automatically manage the redirection of your HTTP and HTTPS links while also fully automating the management of SSL certificates. Move or consolidate domains and subdomains, and confirm that not one of your customers runs into a security warning. With urllo, you can ensure your website security is in good hands, along with your customers’ data.
Find out more about SSL management
By William Richards
Founder & CEO
William has over two decades of experience building mission critical software for a wide range of companies, including at the enterprise level with startups and in the public sector. In his downtime, William is an avid traveler and photographer. He’s also got musical chops, playing both piano and drums.
