Web Development and Design

SSL Certificates

Anytime you collect information from your site visitors—whether it be credit card info or personal information such as an address, phone number or even an opinion, you need to have an SSL Certificate installed for your site.  SSL Certificates secure sensitive information by encrypting it, so that it shows up as a gibberish to a prospective hacker or data breech situation.

Putting yourself in the position of a user, before you ENTER any sensitive information through a website, first be sure that site is protected with an SSL Certificate.  You will be able to tell a site is covered because the website URL will no longer begin with http://, it will become https:// with the “s” standing for “secure.”  The URL will also appear in green.  If there appears to be an issue with a website’s SSL Certificate, protect yourself and do not enter any sensitive data.  You may also want to contact the actual company to inform them that the reason why you decided not to enter sensitive data was because the SSL Certificate was not securing the site.