Why do I need an SSL Web Server Certificate?

Online transactions sometimes fail at the last minute when consumers consider the potential risks of entering their credit card and other personal information, or when it is not clear whether it is safe to download code from your site.

Using a digital SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) 'handshake', based on the leading security protocol on the Internet, you and your customers can rest assured that all online communications are secure while the information is being transmitted.

Securing the transmission of information to your business holds obvious benefits, as does signifying that you are a trustworthy online organization. An SSL Web Server Certificate protects against password and information interception, ensuring that your online relationship with your customers will be one based on trust.

An SSL certificate provides these benefits:

• Authentication: You really are who you claim to be.
• Message privacy: SSL encrypts all the information exchanged between your Web server and your customers while in transit, which means that personal information and credit card details cannot be viewed by outside parties.
• Message integrity: Once your customers have submitted information, the data cannot be tampered with while it is being transmitted.

SSL for ecommerce sites

SSL certificates send a clear signal to your customers. They know that the information they submit will not be intercepted while in transit, and that you are a verified, real-world organization. To be issued with an SSL certificate, it must provide certain forms of identification to the registering company to prove its identity.

eCommerce sites using the ePay payment gateway must use SSL to encrypt the customer’s personal and credit card details when they are transmitted from the browser to the web server.

• If using the ePay API, an SSL certificate issued for your specific domain name is installed on your site. A domain specific SSL certificate also requires a static IP address.
• If using the ePay hosted payment page, there is no need for SSL on your web site, since it uses ePay’s SSL certificate.
• If purchasing an ecommerce package, SSL is included in the price.

Other customers can choose between using our generic SSL certificate, or a domain specific certificate. This is sometimes used when valuable information is being transmitted across the Internet.

Encryption strength

SSL certificates can encrypt transactions between the browser and the web server at 40 bit, 56 bit or 128 bit. Cryptographers consider 128 bit encryption to be impossible to break, as it would take millions of years with the fastest computers to try all the combinations. 40 and 56 bit encryption keys are not as strong and it is feasible – if unlikely - to try all the combinations.

Web server certificates: A Thawte Web Server Certificate connects at 128 bit, 56 bit or 40 bit depending on the client's browser capability.

128 bit Supercerts: The Supercert can extend 128 bit encryption to all clients, even if they use browsers with 40 bit or 56 bit encryption capabilities.

SSL123 certificates: SSL123 certificates are also supplied by Thawte. They are capable of connecting at 128 bits depending on the client browser's capability. They require only a check that the domain is registered and that the owner of the domain has authorised issue of the certificate.

Verisign certificates: Verisign is a premium SSL brand.