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How many times have we heard about cases in which criminals commit fraud or theft through fake websites? The most popular are the constant complaints alleging that, through apocryphal internet pages of the banks, the thugs come to steal the money from the bank accounts of the users at the time they enter their data in said falsified pages with the aim of making a query.
In Mexico, for example, annual losses of $ 5 billion have been calculated due to cybercrime, and in Peru, 67% of banks have suffered some kind of computer attack.
Ensuring the privacy and security of Internet users is the main reason why SSL Security Certificates were created, but how do they work or how do they benefit us?
What are SSL Security Certificates?
A Secure Socket Layer, or Secure Connection Layer, is a title or digital credential that aims to identify a domain and a web server, that is, to authenticate the identity of a website to avoid problems of invasion of user privacy.
Let's look at it as follows: an SSL certificate acts as a customs agent. Each time the information tries to move from one computer to another, first the SSL certificate asks for all the pertinent information to the destination computer to validate who it claims to be, and if the certificate detects any anomaly when performing the identification, then it prevents the information from being transmitted.
How do I know if a website has an SSL Security Certificate?
Identify if some of the websites you enter frequently with the SSL security certificate is fairly straightforward; you just have to look at the top left of the page, and just at the beginning of the URL bar (where we write the addresses of the internet pages) the symbol of a padlock and the legend "Safe" should appear in green.
In addition, an additional change that is observed when having the SSL security certificate is that "s" after the http protocol, which indicates that it is a secure site. For more information about HTTP and HTTPS protocols read this article.
When should I use an SSL Security Certificate?
If you are only an Internet user who enjoys surfing the internet, the reality is that you should not hire this type of protection, on the contrary, what we recommend is that you make sure that the pages you frequent have the legend at the beginning that says "Sure," because that way you will be protecting your personal information.
However, if you own an internet site, we advise you to hire the security certificate, since you will be proving to any Internet user that your page is authentic, that is, you will be testing your identity, that you are who you say you are, and will generate A higher level of trust. In addition, with one you can protect the information that travels between servers, since an encoding will be used that, when intercepted by a third party, will be impossible to decipher.
What are the advantages of installing an SSL certificate on my website?
Privacy. The communication between the client and your server, as well as your personal data will be encrypted, so anyone who tries to intercept such information will not be able to read its content.
Trust. Having an SSL security certificate is synonymous with transparency; is to let your customers know that you have nothing to hide and assure them that their personal information will be used solely and exclusively by your company.
Online payments. If you intend to carry out monetary transactions on your website it is essential that you have an SSL certificate, since it will be thanks to it that online payment standards allow you to make collections through your page.
Types of SSL Security Certificates
Not all security certificates are the same. In fact, within the SSL we can find some variants:
SSL Certificate with Domain Validation (DV). It could be said that it is more basic of certificates, since its only function is to verify the right of the person requesting the information to use a specific domain name.
SSL Certificate with Validation of Company or Organization (OV). This certificate expands its capacity, since in addition to fulfilling the functions of a DV (SSL Certificate with Domain Validation), it also performs an inspection of the background of the company requesting the information, thus increasing its visibility and providing greater reliability.
SSL Certificate with Extended or Extended Validation (EV). This last certificate is the most complete of the three, since it not only fulfills the functions of a DV and an OV, but is also responsible for verifying the legal, physical and operational existence of the company or organization, verifying that the identity coincides with official records, among other types of more complex verifications that ensure sensitive user data.
