People often ask if they should use SSL for their website, and the answer is a big YES. Why? Because a SSL certificate plays a very important role in safeguarding sensitive customer data used to validate online transactions. So if you have an ecommerce website and want to ensure your website is not a haven for credit card and online fraud, then a SSL certificate is necessary for higher web security.
What is SSL?
SSL is short for Secure Sockets Layer and is a very effective method for encrypting data across the internet to ensure the security of private information. This is very effective to safeguard and prevent data from being transmitted to other channels during. When data is transmitted during an online transaction, data of information such as credit card numbers and security codes are sent through multiple channels before reaching the destination.
Without a sufficient degree of encryption, the data can easily land on other channels, resulting in online or credit card fraud. A SSL certificate is a check against such instances that provide a much safer environment to conduct online transactions.
Since a SSL certificate can only be acquired through several security checks, it instills high degree of confidence among your customers to shop from your store without fearing any likelihood of fraud. This, in turn, is effective for building your online reputation and credibility, through which you can gain higher traffic and conversion rates.
Types of Data that require protection
There are various kinds of data that can easily contribute to credit card fraud is not protected properly. Some of these are:
- User authentication details, such as log in and password information;
- Financial details, such as credit card numbers, online orders, and bank account numbers;
- Confidential data, such as date of birth, social security numbers, and license numbers;
- Legal information, such as sensitive documents, list of clients, terms of contracts.
How SSL protects data
The purpose of SSL is that is encrypts the aforementioned data when being transmitted across multiple channels. This means that the only way for a cyber criminal to access data would be to decrypt it. As a result, the contents of the data are kept hidden as it travels across multiple websites until it reaches its final destination.
Although SSL is very beneficial for protecting vital data, it also increases loading time for the web page. This is why SSL is usually used during online payment, where the customer is required to input his or her credit card details. Using SSL for the entire website will lead to a very time-consuming web browsing experience.
How to get a SSL certificate
You can easily get a SSL certificate for your website through your web hosting company or the domain name registrar. In this way, you will be able to ensure that the SSL certificate that you get is digitally signed to your domain name. Make sure it is updated regularly to prevent any inconsistencies for the online store experience.
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