If there’s one major invention that can serve as a hallmark of technological innovation in the 21st century, it has to be the Internet. An absolute necessity, it’s a major part of day-to- day life of more than 73% of the adults today. And why not? It makes their life easier and more fluid. Working, shopping,banking, pursuing personal interests, healthcare, guidance, entertainment- you name it, any and everything can be done online today.
But, as the number of ways in which internet makes life easier are increasing day by day, so are online scams and frauds . There are various malicious individuals, who go through great pains for snooping your website to find weak areas or ‘loop holes’ which they can use to gain access to it. Once they gain access to your website, it’s not only you who is affected; your website users/visitors who have their personal information like contacts, bank details, passwords stored with you also become an unwilling victim of this cyber-crime.
And here’s the thing, customers these days are tech-savvy and they’re well aware of the potential security risks of visiting a website that doesn’t look safe. To share their data with you, or to do business with you, they need assurance that you’ve all proper security systems in place to ensure the safety of their data. So if you haven’t taken proper steps till now to put forth your website as reliable and trustworthy, now is the time to change your game plan.
Your website, if not protected could be vulnerable to some serious threats like-
- Mal-ware attack: – Mal-ware attacks include attacks from several viruses (Trojan horses, root kits & worms). Once your website gets attacked by a malware, it gets blacklisted. A user, thus, on visiting your website will get a warning from his/her website that your website isn’t the best place to hang around and just like that, you’ve lost a potential customer.
- Phishing of websites: – In phishing, you may receive an e-mail or message that looks safe because it is in the name of the an established company or service provider. But when you click on it, you lose all your sensitive data such as credit card details, social security numbers, contact details, passwords and so on.
- Virus attacks: – In addition to securing your website from cyber-crimes, you should also secure your website against virus attacks by installing proper antivirus in your system. Sources of virus could be e-mails, other websites or your device (PC/laptop).
- Spying or sniffing of the data: – Sniffing can be defined as an act of tracking the network traffic for data such as configuration information and passwords.
- Hijacking of session: – With the development of new plug-ins like “Fire-sheep”, hijacking of a session has become ridiculously easy. Fire-sheep finds unsecured Wi-Fi connections over the network and steals unsecured cookies. As soon as anyone visits an insecure website, they become visible to the Fire-sheep and their accounts are hijacked.
A nicely designed website with desired and multiple payment options is thus not enough for an e-commerce business. According to an estimation, 54% of people avoid visiting sites which are not properly secured. So in this day and age when even a slightest hint of unsafety can put users off your website, how do you tell them that your website is secure and reliable, and they can share their information with you without any safety concerns?
Installing an SSL certificate can be a good start, because what’s better than the user’s browser himself telling that this website has been thoroughly tested and authenticated by a trusted security provider and your online transactions, emails and passwords, will be safe here?
SSL Certificates and Online Security
Secure Socket Layer, widely known as SSL is a security protocol similar to that of HTTPS. It acts as a digital passport, and checks whether transmission of data over a network is secure or not by verifying the identity of both, the client as well as the server. After the said check, an SSL certificate provides your website a particular site seal, which shows that the visitors that your it is secured and it is safe to do business with you.
In order to secure your website with SSL protocol, you need to purchase proper SSL certificate products. SSL certificates are digital certificates that are accredited by CA. Certificate authority (CA) is the main authorized center that issues SSL and other digital certificates.
Please note that it is very important that you choose the right SSL certificate for your business, as there are hundreds of options available, and every business has its own unique requirement. Consult your technical staff or website hosting providers or authorized SSL certificate providers like Cheap SSL Shop – www.cheapsslshop.com, who can suggest you an SSL certificate that is perfect for your business and provide it at a nominal and highly-discounted price.
