Is your Website Secure? Does it have an SSL certificate?

In a groundbreaking statement earlier this week, Mozilla announced that all web-based features that will ship with Firefox in the future must be served on over a secure HTTPS connection. This comes on top of Google’s already published new rules on SSL and their ‘HTTPS Everywhere Initiative’.

Online Security – HTTPS – SSL Certification

Security is extremely important online and is now a major focus of online services like Google and Firefox are trying to make it a priority for everybody to take online security seriously. When people use many services including Internet Searches or Online Emails provided by Google or Firefox for example, users already have access to HTTPS encryption as shown with SSL certification.

This has been rolling out across the internet since Google launched their ‘HTTPS Everywhere Initiative’ in August of 2014 in an attempt to make the online world a safer place to explore. This initiative was created to encourage web users to use HTTPS (the part of the website address seen at the start of secure URLs), which highlights the importance of online security.

How this change effects your website can be seen in two ways.

1. If your website does not have an SSL Certificate installed, Google, (and Firefox shortly) will display a ‘Not Secure’ warning on your website to your site’s visitors. This does not look well of course and is likely to discourage visitors from becoming customers (or stop existing customers from continuing to do business with you).
2. If your website does not have an SSL certificate it will rank lower in Search results greatly reducing the effectiveness of your online marketing activity.

This means that websites seen as having poor website security will be pushed further down in Google rankings. The importance of this cannot be overstated.

While SSL certificates do cost extra, if you want to establish a trusted online presence your site will need to install a SSL certificate. The online world can be a scary place and most visitors are looking for a reason to not trust a website.

When a website has an SSL certificate properly installed on the server, a small green padlock icon  will be displayed to the left of a website URL in the browser and https will appear in green as well. SSL certificates are used to secure data transfers, credit card transactions, logins and other personal information. Make sure your website has the best security available. Showing the green locket and https in your URL will show visitors that your website can be trusted and web users will be more likely to stick around.

HTTPS – The ‘Tech’.

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is an internet communication protocol that protects the integrity and confidentiality of data between the user’s computer and websites.  Users expect a secure and private online experience when using a website.

Data sent using HTTPS is secured via Transport Layer Security protocol (TLS), which provides three key layers of protection:

1. Encryption—encrypting the exchanged data keeps it secure from eaves-droppers. This means that while the user is browsing your website, nobody can track their activities across pages or steal their information.
2. Data integrity—means data cannot be modified or corrupted during transfer, intentionally or otherwise, without being detected.
3. Authentication—proves that your users communicate with ‘your’website. It protects against middle-man attacks and builds user trust in your business.

Get your SSL Certificate now.

Contact us today on email or phone 021 2439191 for a no obligation chat about making your website secure and trusted by your customers & viewers.