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SSL Certificates Overview

In this article, we will go in-depth about both what a SSL certificate is and how they work. For the purpose of this article, “SSL” and “TLS” certificates are one in the same as TLS is the predecessor to SSL certificates and current versions of cPanel support up to TLS 1.0 connections.

What is a SSL Certificate?

In this section, we will give a basic overview about what SSL certificates are. SSL stand for Secure Socket Layer, and it is a protocol that does two main things.

• 1) It encrypts all data sent between your visitors and the server helping to prevent 3^rd party assailants from seeing the data as it moves over the internet.
• 2) It “certifies” your website telling your visitors browsers that this site is indeed the correct site and not some phishing site trying to take their information.

Now, you may be asking what the difference is between HTTPs and SSL, and the answer is… none! When you see HTTPs, it is telling you that the site is secured with a SSL certificate.

Why do I need a SSL?

For most websites you won’t need an SSL certificate. However if you work with any type of sensitive information (credit card details, medical records, or if you just want to secure your site’s login), it is highly recommended that you have a SSL certificate to help keep that information secure. In fact in some situations (mostly when dealing with credit card details or medical records), you are required to have some form of SSL certificate.

Depending on the purpose of your website, you may need to contact your credit card merchant or review HIPAA guidelines to find out if one is needed.

How do they work?

At its basic, it encrypts all data sent between the server and the user using a private and public key. The server holds the private key and sends out the public key to be used by the client when encrypting traffic sent from their computer. At the same time, the browser generates a public and private key and sends the public key back to the server so the server has a method of encrypting traffic.

What are the different types?

So, you’ve decided you need to purchase an SSL certificate but can’t decide which one you need. We’ll help by breaking down the differences between each of the types of SSL certificates so you can find the one that will suit your needs. 

PositiveSSL – $39.95/year

 A PositiveSSL certificate is a great general certificate for times when general visitors will be visiting a secure section of your site such as their shopping cart or a login page where they would be providing sensitive information. PositiveSSL certificates are also domain name specific so, they can only secure 1 specific domain name such as “www.example.com” or “cart.example.com”. Some of the features included with a PositiveSSL are as follows:

• Cost-effective SSL certificate with easy validation
• Domain validation
• 256-bit encryption
• 99.9% browser compatibility
• $10,000 relying party warranty
• Unlimited re-issuance policy
• Site Seal included

PositiveSSL Wildcard – $149/year 

A wildcard SSL certificate is one you would use if you needed to provide a secure connection to all areas of your site over multiple subdomains such as “www.example.com”, “cart.example.com”, and “login.example.com”. Using a Wildcard SSL certificate, will provide you with the ability to have a validated secure connection over all subdomains on your site. Some of the features included with a PositiveSSL Wildcard SSL certificate are as follows: 

• Cost-effective, securing multiple subdomains with one certificate
• Domain validation
• 99.9% browser compatibility
• $10,000 relying party warranty
• Unlimited re-issuance policy
• Site Seal included 

Differences between 2048 and 4096 bit RSA Keys 

Before being able to purchase an SSL certificate, a Certificate Request and RSA Key must be generated to tie to the SSL certificate. When you reach this step, you are presented with an option of 2048 bit and 4096 bit key. Both of these are highly secure levels of encryption with 4096 being exponentially more secure than 2048 bit keys. But, being more secure, these are bigger and as such, take up more space and do take more CPU resources to decrypt. Some of the differences between these two encryption levels are as follows:

• 2048 bit keys
  • Use less CPU than a longer key during encryption and authentication and keeps your visitors’ computers running well while visiting your site.
  • Using less CPU means using less battery power. This is important for visitors accessing your site on mobile devices.
•  4096 bit keys
  • Against some types of attacks, security is not just doubled with a 4096 bit key, it is exponential. 4096 is significantly more secure in this situation. If an attack is found that allows a 2048 bit key to be compromised in 10 hours, that does not suggest that a 4096 bit key can be cracked within 20 hours. The attack that can break a 2048 bit key in 50 hours may still need several years to break a 4096 bit key.
  • Some types of keys such as a pgp key which is signed by many other people are desirable to keep for an extended period of time. In this context, the hassle of replacing all of the signatures may be extremely high and it is a good idea to have a future-proof key length. 

As you can see, both of these keys do have their benefits and for most short term situations such as SSL certificates, 2048 bit keys are sufficient unless your SSL certificate provider requires a higher level of encryption.

How do I get one?

While we do allow SSL certificates provided by other issuers, we also provide the ability to purchases SSL certificates directly through Backstage.

For more information about how to order a SSL certificate, please contact us via live chat.

That’s a wrap!

We hope this article has been enlightening and that we have shed some light on how SSL certificates help make the internet a more secure place. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment here. You can also open a ticket with our support team by vising the support tab in Backstage or by emailing us directly at [email protected]