Steve Smith, host of your Technology Questions Answered, introduces listeners to SSL, its terminology, is history, its numerous uses and a free trial certificate solution to test your own web-site with.
Episode #1-45 released on August 7, 2011
Today, on Technology Questions Answered, I'm not just going to explain what SSL is, what kind of web-sites may need to have such a thing, or the benefits of SSL. I'm going to give you the ability to test SSL with your web-site for 90 days, with no commitment or cost.
SSL is short of Secure Sockets Layer. We use this secure sockets layer to encrypt sessions with web-sites of all kinds. You see this type of connection every single time you connect to your bank's web-site, or pay for merchandise in online stores. We've been able to use this kind of encrypted session only since February 1995. We are currently using TLS 1.2 (SSL 3.3) since August 2008. So, yes, SSL itself continues to be improved, and get better encryption all the time.
Web-sites that need to use SSL are banks, online stores, web-based email sites, social networks, etc... The rule to remember is, if your web-site actively collects personal information that can comprise the personal security and identity, you should be deploying active encryption methods like SSL.
If you've got a web-site that doesn't collect any personal information, has static information, is a public messaging area where anyone can use it, and see the content, you don't really need to use SSL. You can use SSL to secure it, but it is not required.
The simplest way to know that a web-site deploys this kind of technology, is to look at the address bar. If the web-site starts with https:// and not http://, it is using SSL. Modern browsers all allow for certificate verification, you can check who signed it, when it expires, etc...
This is the most important question, SSL enables sessions to be immune to many security issues. Usually, when your in an unprotected network, you can have your session sniffed by programs like Firesheep, SSL makes this virtually impossible by protecting your session with encryption. Its thanks to SSL that you can use many of your favorite web-sites securely.
http://www.instantssl.com/ssl-certificate-products/free-ssl-certificate.html
Next week, I'll explain a fast way of fixing any defective programs in Windows, in just minutes, instead of bringing it to the computer store to be fixed.
Don't forget to subscribe to the show, visit our web-site at www.zedaxis.net for lots more information, stay safe and online, this has been another Technology Questions Answered. Have a great day!
Host : Steve Smith | Music : Jonny Lee Hart | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Productions