How SSL Certificates Promotes Secure Online Transactions

The web is impressively changing the way we do our daily routines. For example, we can go shopping without leaving the comforts of our home. With just a few mouse clicks, we can purchase anything from anywhere in the world. This signifies that the Internet will be an important part of the future. However, the continuous development of commerce on the web also opens a gateway for several kinds of opportunists who take advantage of online personal information disclosure and financial transactions. This is why SSL certificates are necessary.

SSL or Secure Sockets Layer certificates are web technologies that protect the safety of customers and businesses in trading products and services. These certificates are represented by a padlock icon in the browser’s address bar, indicating that the particular website follows standards and protocols and therefore can be trusted commercially. In addition to the padlock logo, the web address of a trustworthy website starts with https instead of http, the added letter s obviously stands for secure.

Businesses get certification from certificate authority companies like VeriSign, DigiCert, and GlobalSign to ensure that their commercial website is secure. They work together with Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, and other web developers so they can ensure that web browsers support the certificate issued.

SSL certifications are your assurance that sensitive information is transmitted only between involved parties. They prevent identity theft because they protect several information that you hold confidential like your full name, address, date of birth, and contact numbers; banking and credit card information like your account number, password; and online information such as your username, password, e-mail addresses, and security backup.

But in fraudsters, scammers, and other web sharks always find ways to deceive customers even with continuous progress in online security. To take on this problem, certificate authorities introduced Extended Validation or EV in 2007. Online businesses can now further strengthen their security measures because EV requires customers to undergo a longer and more comprehensive registration and validation process.

You can easily distinguish shopping websites that have legitimate EV certification because their address bar is colored green. EV certification is now supported by the latest browsers of Microsoft, Mozilla, Safari, Opera, and Google Chrome. For this reason, it’s vital for customers to update their browser to be able to transact with online businesses that have EV security.

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