SSL & the importance of keeping it current
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) in layman’s terms is a mechanism to establish a secured channel created between your server and your customers’ device. While the communication channel itself is slow due to heavy encryption, it is very secure, making it very difficult for hackers to sniff information exchanged (network traffic) between your customers’ device and your website.
Having an active and working SSL setup provides customers with the confidence to provide sensitive information to your website. This will have a direct impact on your business.
A working SSL connection is vital for websites that accept one of the following:
Having an active and working SSL setup provides customers with the confidence to provide sensitive information to your website. This will have a direct impact on your business.
A working SSL connection is vital for websites that accept one of the following:
- PII data (personal information – name, address, dob, bank account details, etc.)
- PHI data (health-related information)
- Payment information (credit card details) and
- Other sensitive information
How do you get the SSL on your server?
A technical professional will get information about your server and provide it to a recognized certification authority. This certification authority will provide a certificate with fixed validity to install on your server.
What else to do?
The pages that either display or accept sensitive information as listed above will need to have to be tagged to use an SSL certificate (URL will start with “https” as against “http”]. Enabling SSL use on specific pages will require a minor code change if not factored initially.
What kind of problems happen?
Some of the common problems that you can face with SSL are:
- The validity of SSL can expire and needs renewal [certification authority gives a certificate valid for a specific duration]
- The certificate file can get corrupted.
- Your hosting provider has changed the details provided to the certification authority.