Types and Features of SSL Certificate

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. This protocol has been developed by Netscape. It is used to transmit private documents via Internet. It uses cryptographic system and having two keys to encrypt the data. The keys are public key and private key. The public key is known to everyone. The private key is known only to recipient of the message. Many websites using this protocol to obtain the confidential information like credit card numbers and banking transaction security codes. If the

Website or URL has an SSL connection, it will start with https instead of http. In this article, we will discuss the features of each type of SSL certificate.

• High assurance certificate: The High assurance certificate is a normal type of certificate. To give this certificate, the authorities will check for validity business registration and the ownership of the domain name. These two are listed on the certificate. The visitors can see the ownership of the domain and the business which it runs. The validation to issue this certificate will take from an hour to a few days and it needs manual verification.

• Low assurance certificate: The low assurance certificate is also known as domain validated certificate. These provide less assurance to the customers than the high assurance certificates. These are less expensive than the high assurance certificates.

Domain validated certificates include the domain name only and not the business or organization name. The certificate can be issued instantly and the authorities will verify automatically by checking WHOIS record.

• Extended validation: Extended validation certificates are a new type of certificates that are designed to prevent phishing attacks. Business authorization and extended validation of the business is required to order this certificate. The certificate is received within a few days or few weeks. The extended validation certificate will give more assurance than the high assurance certificate. When a website have this certificate the address bar display in green color.

• Wildcard certificate: The wildcard certificate will work on all the mail domain extended or sub domain URLs. For example the wildcard certificate is taken for '*.domainname.com'. The business have the other domains like mail.domainname.com, www.domainname.com etc. This certificate will work regardless of changes on the * mark part.

Warranty:
Warranty while giving the purchase of a certificate is slightly different from the general warranty. Generally when a product is purchased the warranty is given to the customer to the product. In SSL certificate the warranty is actually to the end user. When the end user lose the money by deceive while transaction in the certified website, the certification authority will pay that amount to the end user. The warranty is differ from one authority to another.

These are the main types of SSL certificates available. These can be given by almost all the certificate issuing authorities. Based on the requirements of the website you can select the suitable type.