SSL Certificates for your online business

Security and privacy are more important than ever. Security is important for online payments, but also when you as a customer leave (personal) data with an online business. Customers expect you to handle this data carefully and the law obliges you to do so. There are different requirements for the storage of this data, but this article is about the security of the data exchange itself: SSL is one of the techniques.

What is SSL

What exactly does SSL do? We know the term SSL or Secure Connection from various campaigns by banks and the government, or from the notification in WhatsApp that the conversation is "encrypted". Browsers also clearly show when a website is using SSL, with a lock shown or even a green address bar. What does that mean? These indicators show that the connection between the customer and the online business is secure. Compare it to mail. An old-fashioned connection (without ssl), is like a postcard where the text can be read by all persons holding the card from sender to recipient. SSL, on the other hand, is like a sealed letter, even in secret language. Only the sender and receiver have the key to decipher the message.

Terms

  • SSL: Secure Socket Layer, the technical term for the secure connection layer
  • Certificate: Key your browser recognizes that secures the connection
  • Https: Secure handling of requests (requests) by the browser to a website
  • Domain: The domain name of your website (example.com)
  • Extended validation: extended certificate (which provides the green address bar with company name)

SSL in Practice

How does SSl work in practice? To use SSL as an online business owner, you must go to a Certificate Authority to request an SSL Certificate. If you work with LightSpeed, CCV Shop or another hosted platform, you will have to arrange/request this through them. You can not just make a certificate, only a Certificate Authority has the ability to give you a certificate that browsers recognize as valid, you must first prove who you really are. This is done, for example, by checking your e-mail and company information. Or (with Extended Validation) also through a phone call. Once your information has been checked, you get a certificate that you have installed on your site. With your own site, your programmer or hosting company can do that for you and from that moment on SSL is working ('https://'). This certificate is linked 1-to-1 with your company and your domain name, so you can't just change it.

SEO & appearance

Customers increasingly value privacy, and for that reason Google has included https in its ranking factors. Now there are hundreds of factors that co-determine how high your site ranks in the search results, making the exact effect difficult to measure (but that's actually true of all single ranking factors). For your online business, it is also important to show that you are serious about your business, it provides a professional appearance. An SSL certificate is a must.

Browsers

Browsers, especially Firefox and Chrome already, are increasingly looking at the privacy guarantee of websites you visit. Especially if you can leave data on a site then browsers will (start) warning users if they leave data on a potentially insecure site. So in the checkout process, where your customer leaves his data, SSL is a requirement. Not only from your customer's point of view but the obligation is also legal (and falls under security against abuse).

Application and transfer

Because SSL certificates "hang" on a company, it is important to check the details in the case of an online business transfer. In an asset/liability transaction, the entity will change and the certificates should also be renewed and given a different company name. Arrange this in good time before the scheduled transfer date. When a whole company is transferred, it is important to keep an eye on when the certificates expire (sometimes after 1, 2 or 3 years) and whether you, as the buyer, have all the data you need to renew the certificates (think of login details of the Certificate Authority).