Summary

With its worldwide reach, the Web is a lucrative distribution channel with unprecedented potential. By setting up an online storefront, businesses can reach the millions of people around the world already using the Internet for transactions. And, by ensuring the security of online payments, businesses can minimize risk and reach a far larger market—the 89 percent of Internet users who still hesitate to shop online because of security concerns.

An SSL certificate enables you to immediately begin conducting online business securely, with authentication, message privacy, and message integrity. As a result, you can minimize risk, win customer confidence, and, ultimately, gain a competitive edge.

Some CAs believe that encryption without authentication is enough to ensure a secure Web storefront and to build trust between you and your customers. But, encryption alone is not sufficient. Unauthenticated SSL certificates provide confidentiality and integrity, but lack the third-party authentication necessary to:

• Verify that the user is actually visiting the company’s Web storefront and not an imposter’s site.

• Allow the receiver of a digital message to be confident of both the identity of the sender and the integrity of the message.

• Ensure safe online transactions that protect both customers and your business^[1].

For these reasons, it is critical that your Web storefront is authenticated, which will improve Web visitors’ trust in you and your Web storefront. Furthermore, if certificates can be issued to unauthorized parties, the trustworthiness of legitimate certificates is diminished. Requiring verification of the certificate applicant’s authority to request a certificate (employment with the organization named in the certificate) guards against the threat of issuing a certificate to a malicious individual who is not associated with the organization.

An authenticated SSL certificate provides the ultimate in credibility for your online storefront. Rigorous authentication practices set by industry standards provide assurance that subscribers are properly identified and authenticated, and subscriber certificate requests are accurate, authorized, and complete.

In addition, by displaying a Secure Site Seal, you can give your customers the confidence to communicate and transact business with your site. A Secure Site Seal allows your visitors to check your SSL certificate’s information and status in real time, and provides additional protection against the misuse of revoked and expired certificates.

Finally, rigorous authentication practices, as well as leading-edge cryptographic techniques and ultrasecure facilities are designed to maximize you and your customers’ confidence. These practices, technology, and infrastructure are the foundation for server certificates to secure transactions, working in conjunction with your Web storefront server.