SSL certificates are what allows websites to make use of HTTPS, a more secure protocol than HTTP. An SSL certificate is an encrypted data file that is hosted at a website’s origin server. SSL certificates bring SSL/TLS encryption capability, and they contain the website’s public key and the related information about its identity.
This file will be referenced by the devices trying to talk to the origin server to get the public key and check the authenticity of the entire website. The private key must be kept secure and a secret.
What is SSL?
SSL, known as TLS (Transport Layer Security) generally, is a protocol for encrypting the Internet traffic and validating server identity. Websites that have an HTTPS URL, any of them use SSL/TLS.
What the SSL certificates feature?
• The domain name this certificate was generated for
• Who it was issued to, date, what person, organization, or device.
• Which certification authority has issued this?
• Certificate authority’s digital signature.
• Associated subdomains
• Expiry date of the certificate
• Public key and private key
The public and private keys, which are usually a very long sequences of characters, are used for encrypting and signing of data in SSL. Data from the public key is only decrypted by the private key.
The certificate originates from a site’s origin server, and it gets sent to the devices that want to connect to the site. Most browsers enable users to view the SSL certificate: on Chrome, this can be done by clicking on the padlock icon on the left side of the URL bar.
Why Websites need https certificates
A website must have https certificates in order to protect user information, make it clear that the website is really theirs, and not to let cyber attackers create a counterfeit version of the site, and get the users trust.
- Encryption
Therefore, SSL/TLS encryption can be accomplished through public key pairing which is enabled by SSL certificates. Customers (like web browsers) use the public key which it has obtained from a server’s SSL certificate to establish a TLS connection.
- Authentication
With SSL certificates confirm this client is talking to the server that actually own the domain. Hence, it will help to prevent spoofing of domains and other category of attacks.
- HTTPS
Without this, businesses will not be able to create their secured HTTPS web addresses. HTTPS is secure HTTP, or HTTPS is HTTP with the traffic being encrypted using SSL/TLS.
HTTPS not only protect the data of users in transfer but also give sites a higher level of trust from user’s point of view. Many users won’t notice the difference between an http: This is where // and an https:// web address come in, but most browsers tag such HTTP sites as “not secure” in obvious ways, hoping to provide incentive for switching to HTTPS therefore increasing security.
How does a website obtain an SSL certificate?
To make an SSL certificate valid, CAs must authorize domains to get it. CA is essentially the outside organization, an authoritative third part which issues and issues SSL certificates. Apart from that, the certificate will be digitally signed by the CA with their own private key. This will facilitate the devices of client to validate the certificate. As far as most but not all CAs go, they will charge a fee when issuing an SSL certificate.