Web site security certificates, often known as just digital certificates or secure socket layer or SSL certificates, encryp ecommerce transaction data transmitted over the Net.
They give customers confidence that the site cares about security, and are an essential infrastructure component of any ecommerce site.
They are most often found installed on a site’s web-server.
However they are also commonly installed on other servers supporting confidential data transmissions, such as domain name servers, or email servers.
Certificates not only encrypt data, but they also serve as a seal of a verified identity.
That is because certificate vendors require their business customers to provide proof of identity before they will provide approval for their seal to be displayed on a web-site.
With certificates from leading vendors costing some hundreds of dollars each in annual subscription fees, the certificate market is both big, and valuable.
Vendors with significant market presence amongst Australian ecommerce sites incude such names as Verisign, Thawte, and Comodo.
Other leading providers include Geotrust, Cybertrust (now known as Verizon Business) Entrust and Trustwave.
Others, including GoDaddy, the provider of this site’s SSL certificates, provide less expensive certificates that are growing in popularity.
For more technical information on digital certificates see wikipedia’s entry for public key certificates.
Caution:
In actuality, site certificates are easily obtained and provide little assurance as to the security of a web-site. As explained in the Australian government’s guide to digital certificates.
An SSL protected web site provides no assurance about the security of the web site itself or how well those who manage the web site handle your personal information stored on its databases. An SSL protected web site is not necessarily more secure than a web site that does not use SSL. An SSL web site is no more or less able to be compromised or defaced than one that does not use SSL. SSL mainly provides protection for data in transit only.
Even so, most ecommerce merchants value the assurance they give to customers, and believe the vendor seals give their sites a kind of endorsement of commercial integrity and trustworthiness.
Governments too, have adopted digital certificate programmes to assure security of public sector sites. A good example is the Australian government’s Gatekeeper programme, which manages the certificates underpinning secure online transactions in areas such as Customs, Medicare and Taxation.
For more information go to:
http://www.finance.gov.au/e-government/security-and-authentication/gatekeeper/index.html
Last Update: 31 March 2010