Have you had a pop up saying “Insecure Connection” or received an email warning saying that Chrome will show security warnings on your website? You need an SSL certificate! You can usually contact your hosting company, and, for a fee, they will install a new SSL certificate for you.
What is an SSL Certificate?
SSL Certificates are small data files that digitally bind a cryptographic key to an organization’s details. When installed on a web server, it activates the padlock and the https protocol and allows secure connections from a web server to a browser.
The main reason SSL is used is to keep sensitive financial and personal information sent across the Internet encrypted so that only the intended recipient or viewer can understand it. This is important because the information you send on the Internet is passed from computer to computer across the web to get to the final destination server. Any computer between you and the final server can see your credit card numbers, usernames, passwords, and other personal information if it is not encrypted with an SSL certificate. When an SSL certificate is used, the information becomes unreadable to everyone except for the server you are sending the information to. This protects it from hackers and identity thieves.
Installing your SSL is just the start. There may be elements on your website that are insecure and need to be converted over to https. This is a fairly simple process of finding the offending file and changing the location. How can I tell if my site is SSL secured? A simple test can show you. Type in your domain name, but instead of the normal https:// change it to https://
If you receive an error message, then your SSL is not set up properly or you do not have an SSL certificate on your site.
If you think you would like an SSL certificate for your website, and just feel overwhelmed by it, Design Web can usually install your certificate for under $100. Contact us today to get started!
