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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 6 2007, 1:50 PM EST (current) | hemanthjava | 992 words added |
| Dec 6 2007, 1:49 PM EST | hemanthjava |
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There are many Certification Authorities (CAs) currently offering digital certificates, each with various certificate products. For the first time user of digital certificates it is often difficult to make an informed purchase decision. Equally, experienced users may not have a full understanding of certain finer points relating to the products that are available on the market. Securing transmission of financial information in Ecommerce is currently the major application of SSL certificates. However, with incidence of identity theft on the rise, protection of personally identifiable information is becoming ever more important. This category of data would include identity and social security numbers, as well as e-mail addresses. So, if you are handling financial transactions on your web site, there is no question that SSL certificates are required. If you are managing sensitive customer data, the use of SSL certificates is worth serious consideration – especially if customer/member security and privacy is high on your list of priorities.
There are a number of places where one can get an SSL certificates. You can search on Google for SSL certificates and there would be number of choices that you can choose from. You can also check with your hosts and enquire with them about the SSL certificates since I am sure that they also work with SSL’s and some of them also resell it and you can be assured of the fact that it would be a pretty good purchase to make since the host would have already used that certificate and you can get it for a pretty reasonable rate but then you will have to check about the proprietary conditions since you might move to a new host and it might be pretty difficult for you to transfer the certificate to a new host. You can also ask owners of other e-stores to recommend about SSL’s because they would have better experience of using them on there own websites and they would know about all the things that are related to SSL’s whether it is there costs whether it is about transferring them, contacting another merchant is certainly a good idea.
Now let us talk about the cost aspect of SSL certificates. The certificates were very costly initially and only a few could afford it but with passing time and opening of a number of vendors who sell similar certificates the price has come down considerably. An SSI certificate is available for anywhere between $49 and $100 on a per year basis. One also has an option of buying Shared SSL’s that means SSL’s which are shared with the host but the problem in this case would be that you might loose out on sales because the moment the customer clicks on the padlock showing the security certificate it would give information about your host and that might make the customer not rely on you and you might loose out on a probable sale so getting an SSL of yours is the best option and anyways it does not cost much either.
Now let us look into the installation of an SSL. So how does one go about installing an SSL, You need to first check with your host and discuss about the various options that you would have of installing an SSL because each and every host has a different approach towards installing an SSL and consulting your host is the best method to approach, Then you need to talk to your SSL vendor about the entire procedure and makes sure that both the host and the vendor are on the same page and do not differentiate on anything. One thing that should be given importance is that the details that you provided to the vendor should be absolutely correct. It should not be like you give different information about your company that does not match and then you might have to face a number of problem in the future so best thing to do set your record straight from the beginning itself. Next in the process is transferring your SSL key. SSL key is basically a text document with the encryption code that the vendor will supply to you should immediately transfer it to the Host without making any changes to it because it is actually the host that has to work with it and you should make sure that you do not open it because if there is any changes that would take place while you open it then the key might not work and it would be of no use to you then so you should go ahead and transfer it to you host as it is. You should install the SSL in the root directory so that the entire site is protected. The host might ask you that whether the SSL should be installed in your site or the host site the best approach is getting it installed in the root directory, the reason being that sometimes while a customer browses through the site he comes upon a statement which says that the part of site is not protected and this happens if the SSL is not installed in the root directory. Then you should test your site using the http and https command. Now what happens is that if you go into a website and type https instead of http it will have a lock on the bottom left hand corner which shows that the website is entirely secure and if it does not show that then you need to look into the issue. You can click on the gold lock and check if it reads correctly, if it does its well and good and if it does not then you will have to look into changing it or installing it properly. And now you will be ready to accept credit card transactions and more than you your customers would be happy to shop with you if you have a proper SSL certificate installed in your website.
