What is an SSL Certificate? SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. An SSL certificate authenticates a website’s identity and verfies the encryption of data. SSL certificates can be obtained through a certificate authority (CA), web hosting provider, or reseller. These digital certificates enable a site to move from HTTP to HTTPS. When you visit a website with an SSL certificate, the data sent between your browser and the web server gets encrypted. It ensures that the data you enter into a site (i.e. credit card number, address, or login information) is only read by the intended recipient. Note: The SSL you hear about today is usually the newer TLS (Transport Layer Security). SSL was sunset due to the vulnerabilities, but TLS is often still called SSL. Throughout this article we will use the term SSL for TLS. How do I know if a website has an SSL certificate? Any website
