What is an digital certificate ?
Secure Sockets Layer ( SSL abbreviation ) is a cryptographic protocol that provides secure communications on the Internet , such as Web browsing and e -mail communication. SSL is most commonly used to encrypt transactions of online stores (eg. credit card numbers ). Increasingly, the communication through secure connections also applies to other sites if confidential data is transmited through the web. If you want to secure your web pages via HTTPS protocol, your hosting provider will need to install one of the following digital certificates:
- self-signed certificate, which is issued without any checks (therefore they are not trustworthy),
- DV digital certificate, which is issued after verifying domain ownership,
- OV digital certificate, which is issued after verification of the organization,
- EV digital certificate, which is issued after verification of the organization in accordance with the highest standards.
A comparison of the basic features of the digital authentication type:
| verification of ownership | verification of organization | standardized verification | degree of confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Self-signed certificate | NO | NO | NO | low |
DV certificate | YES | NO | NO | usual |
| OV certificate | YES | YES | NO | high |
| EV certificate | YES | YES | DAYES | very high |
| Self-signed certificate | |
| verification of ownership | NO |
| verification of organization | NO |
| standardized verification | NO |
| degree of confidence | low |
| DV certificate | |
| verification of ownership | YES |
| verification of organization | NO |
| standardized verification | NO |
| degree of confidence | usual |
| OV certificate | |
| verification of ownership | YES |
| verification of organization | YES |
| standardized verification | NO |
| degree of confidence | high |
| EV certificate | |
| verification of ownership | YES |
| verification of organization | YES |
| standardized verification | YES |
| degree of confidence | very high |
If your pages use a digital certificate:
- which was not signed by a trusted organization,
- which has not been issued to the your domain,
- that has expired,
- which has been canceled (if there has been abuse)
… the visitors in most modern browsers will see a security warning like this:
 |  Warning massage |
 |  Warning massage |
 |  Warning massage |
 |  Warning massage |
| Warning massage |
| Warning massage |
| Warning massage |
| Warning massage |
Using a self-signed certificate is only acceptable for intranet use and for dvelepoment and testing, where the user is already familiar with website and trusts it.
We welcome you to contact us and enquire about digital certificate solutions for your website.