Safe Internet Shopping with SSL

 

SSL

 

(Secure Socket Layer). Now we are safe from the ugly hand of fraud, now we are secure, we can do shopping online with the comfort that everything we do is encrypted! As long as you see a padlock on your browser.

 

 

What is SSL?

 

Secure Socket Layer (and its latest update TLS, Transport Layer Security) was designed by the people who brought us the Netscape browser technology. Really it is a data transport protocol.

 

 

How does it work?

 

Internet merchants wanting to use the system get an SSL Certificate. The Certificate is data that has been digitally signed by a CA (Certification Authority, someone we are supposed to trust). Because it has been digitally signed by a trustworthy institution (CA) we are supposed to trust the data it contains.

 

What is it supposed to provide?

 

All it means is that you have an encrypted channel/link with that certificate owner. So does this mean that the URL (web address) that I see in my browser bar is who I have a secure link with? NO! All it means is that you have an encrypted link with the certificate holder. There is no verifiable or trustable link between the padlock and what you see in your URL bar!