subject: Are SSL Certificates Really Secure by:Jack Melde [print this page] The biggest challenge for internet these days is in the form of fraud or hacking. Security of any transaction on the WWW is very crucial and therefore, several security tools are developed for the same. Some of the best security tools are IP hider, this enables you to hide the IP address from which you are surfing the internet. This will leave to IP trails for any hacker to know your location. However, when it comes to online business or sharing any personal details on the internet such as passwords or pin numbers then special security is required. SSL certificates are such viable option that gives your online transaction the much needed security.
SSL certificate is much popular term in the world of internet; it stands for Security Socket Layer. It is this certificate that can save your private details from being hacked. SSL certificates certify that the website is secure for carrying on with any transactions on it. Thus, it is a standard tool for knowing if the website is safe or not, but how far are the SSL certificates secure?
An SSL certificate is generally issued by an authority and therefore, it does have the authentication to transfer the private data safely over the internet. The SSL is commonly used on the web page that deals with the entry of passwords, PIN number, or any other personal information. Once, this certificate is obtained by the website owner, the website owner is provided with two keys. One is the public key that is placed on the website while entering the personal data. Hence, the personal data entered using this key gets encrypted by the SSL. The encrypting code is decipherable only through the second key i.e. the private that is provided to the website owner. Hence, the entire encrypted personal information is transferred from the user's server to the website owner's server in a secure manner.
Hence, it is definitely one of the high quality security certificates for sharing personal information over the internet. There are numerous companies producing these certificates but the it is wise to buy the reputed and authorized ones such as Verisign, COMODO, Geotrust, and Thawte. These companies provide with the SSL certificate of different bits that provide security at different levels. These SSL certificates are recognized by all the internet browsers and the certificates can enable the encryption up to 256-bit.
