With the ever-growing popularity of the world wide web, threats to cyber security have also increased. Alarmingly, cyberattacks have cost about $6 trillion per annum by 2021, which is more than a significant amount. However, the saviors have also devised the tried and tested methods to secure your website and data. Therefore, if you plan to set up your digital place, you must be wary of some precautions you must take to ensure your security. One of these precautions is to get an SSL certificate. Here we shall take a deeper look into why a cheap SSL certificate is essential for your website.
What is an SSL/TLS certificate?
Before we dissect the need for an SSL certificate, let me tell you SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is more commonly known as TLS. It is a protocol that encrypts the internet traffic and verifies the server identity. For example, https as the initials of a website indicates that it has an SSL certificate. It contains the website’s public key, identity, and related information. Devices that attempt to communicate with the website’s origin server refer to this file to fetch the public key to verify the server’s identity.
In contrast, the private key is secret and secure. Hence, it helps establish a safe and private link between the browsers and web servers. Currently, SSL certificates serve millions of businesses to reduce the risk of sensitive information such as emails, passwords, credit card numbers, usernames etc.). It ensures web security via the following.
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Encryption
If you get an SSL certificate, it facilitates the SSL/TLS encryption vis the pairing of public-private keys. Consequently, the users get only the public key vital to open the TLS connection from the SSL certificate of the website server.
Authentication:
The certificate helps verify that the user is directed to the correct server that owns the actual domain. Hence, if you buy SSL certificate cheap, you can easily prevent domain spoofing and other cyber-security attacks.
HTTPS
As mentioned above, the SSL/TLS certificate provides a web address with HTTPS security from HTTP. Such websites encrypt their traffic via SSL. Furthermore, it is one of the main features that indicate a website has the certificate. Other indicators are as follows:
- Padlock on the left of a URL
- A trust seal
- In the case of an extended validation-SSL certificate, the address bar appears to be green
What does it contain?
If you get an SSL certificate from a top-notch web hosting & domain agency, it would include the following
- The domain name
- The organization, person, or device the certificate is accredited to
- Associated subdomains
- The expiration date of the certificate
- Issue and expiration of the certificate
- The public key
- Digital signature of the certificate authority
As mentioned above, private keys are always secret. Both the private and public keys of SSL are the long strings of characters used for encryption and decryption.
Types of SSL certificates
If you plan to buy cheap SSL certificate, you may not have come across the fact that not every SSL certificate is the same. Instead, you may get an SSL certificate depending upon the number of domains or subdomains owned and the required validation level. On these bases, you can have the following types of SSL certificates.
Single: it secures only one qualified domain name or a subdomain name.
Wildcard: if you own one domain and more than one subdomain, you should go for the wildcard certificate.
Multi-domain: As the title indicates, the multi-domain certificate is for multiple domains.
Domain validation
It is a cheap SSL certificate covering the primary verification and encryption of the domain name registrant’s name. It may take only a few minutes to several hours to get an SSL certificate.
Organization validation
With this certificate, specific details about the domain owner are authenticated other than the basic encryption and verification. These details may include the name and address of the owner. However, you may buy an SSL certificate cheap in a few hours to several days.
Extended Validation
If you seek to have the highest level of security for your business website, an extended validation SSL certificate is what you are looking for which ensures the highest level of protection due to the comprehensive examination required for the certificate (necessary as per the guidelines of the SSL certification industry governing consortium). To provide the extended validation certificate, the agency authenticates the ownership of a domain name, entity authentication, physical, legal, and operational existence of the entity. Usually, you can get an SSL certificate for extended validation within a few days to several weeks.
Is there anything like a self-signed certificate?
Yes! However, that would be too brief to be an answer. Usually, one can quickly generate a public-private key pairing. Consequently, anyone can develop their SSL certificates using the above information and the public key. These types of certificates are self-employed certificates. The title is so because digital signatures on the certificate will be the website’s private key instead of any certificate authority.
As the user gets this certificate, he must install and activate the certificate on the website’s origin server. If you buy SSL certificate cheap, you won’t be able to verify the origin server via a third party or an outside authority. Moreover, generally, the browsers do not identify the self-signed certificates as trustworthy and still mark websites with such credentials as not secure. The browser may also terminate the connection completely that blocks the website’s loading.
In short, you can have to get an SSL certificate that is self-signed. However, it would not be of much use. Therefore, it is always best to choose the best suitable SSL certificate from a top-notch agency that deals with web hosting & domain such as Navicosoft. Moreover, most web hosting agencies offer SSL certificates as an add-on service or a free perk in their hosting package. For you, either of the cases will be a win-win for you.
Choosing the SSL Provider
Lastly, when you choose your cheap SSL provider, you must consider that the user’s web browsers have a cached list for the trusted CAs. Hence, if you get an SSL certificate from an entity other than the approved list, the browser automatically sends a warning message that indicates the user that the website is not secure and it may not be trustworthy at all.
