It is critical era in which we are more concerned about the security of websites. Any website be it a simple web page or a complex web application are equally vulnerable to security threats. Virus, Trojan, adware, spyware, malware, hackers and the list continue. Especially those websites which involved in online payment option (online shopping, online banking, trading, online retailing, NGOs in short all websites coming in the category of ecommerce) are at a higher risk. As the final motto of any intruder or hacker would be gaining money directly or indirectly.
Well, long story short, yes you need to secure your E-Commerce website with SSL certificate. SSL ensures the encryption of the connection as well as the data transmitted between the source and destination and vice versa.
What are the factors that make it compulsory to use SSL in ecommerce website? Lets us see a few factors which lead to the enforcement of the usage of SSL.
Credit/Debit Card Acceptance:
Are you an online shopping/banking/trading website whether an established or a newbie? If yes, then you definitely will be accepting payment through credit/debit card. And also you realize that credit/debit card information provided by any customer is the most sensitive data to be protected. Threats like Identity theft, phishing and malware attack are more likely to create chaos on your website if you are not SSL protected.
Also if you are storing credit/debit card details in your database then obviously you are going to retrieve the data or process the data in any other way offline through POS machine or if you directly charge on your dealer account’s website, then you should be SSL protected.
Login Form:
Login form will carry all the specifics of the customer from his name, address, phone number, workplace to his bank account number. If all this data is transmitted from one source to another in a plain text form then it is but natural that any attacker would easily access that information and hence will misuse it. SSL here enforces the strong encryption of the data being transmitted at the same time it establishes a secured connection between the two end points. There are possibly two ways of securing the login form:
To secure the login page with the SSL certificate separately.
And another way is to make the login form your website’s home page and securing it with SSL.
Development issues:
Yes, it is possible that there might be some issues in development side. However, it is not wise to blame your developer as he would never have done it intentionally. Many a times organizations have their whole website or a part of website built up offshore, developer may download a source code from already compromised websites, SQL injections if not closed the database connection are some of the common loopholes that lead to security breaches.
One should always prefer coding of the website inside the company itself, purchase a code signing SSL certificate to ensure the integrity as well as authenticity of the code, never ever download code from an unsecured website, always close the SQL database connection. Install Standard or EV SSL certificate which comes along with enhanced security tools like anti malware scan and phishing scan.
From above factors it must be clear that how important SSL certificate is to secure your website as well as your reputation.
SSL everywhere
Now, there are many web host providers that provide SSL certificates to be used up in a share. But the shared SSL does not appeal the visitor that much as private SSL certificate separately does. Also, it may not display the organization name as well as the website’s name and also it may show a warning message. People feel uncomfortable to filling their personal information with shared SSL warning massage.
I would like to recommend go with standard SSL certificate which is issued on fully qualified domain name and will not shows any warning massage. Using trusted brand SSL certificate is more prefer for securing personal information and transaction for ecommerce business.
If you are a newbie and a low budget website owner then there is piece of cake for you too. You can redirect the customers to the trusted third party payment processor like PayPal. But here also the need of SSL appears as PayPal allows you to accept credit card information on your website and obviously you are going to store it.
Well, the above feature cannot be counted as an alternative for using SSL as it is just securing your website’s payment procedure still your login form and other codes of your website needs to be secured. And for that you need SSL certificate.
For those websites who are using third party payment processors Standard SSL certificate is the best match.
While for those who are dealing with each and everything of ecommerce from scrap on their websites itself, an EV SSL certificate is a must.
For More details Log on to http://www.arinesolutions.com/
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