The SSL/TLS certificates are the Digital certificates for website security, or in simple words, they are the security guards of your website who ensure encrypted and secure communication between the client and the server. Before discussing the details about what SSL/TLS certificates are, let me give you detailed intuition about what is an SSL certificate? And what is the purpose of the SSL security certificate?
Let us take an example of a society where you live. Let’s suppose that society does not have any security and anyone could pass through the gate without any security check. This thing can be dangerous for both the visitor and the society. What if the visitor is passing through is the wrong guy or the society he is entering into is not the safe place.
The same scenario implies to the internet. A user searching for something on the internet might end up browsing the wrong website where his/her credentials might get stolen or a user browsing unsecured websites with a bad intention. To protect both, SSL certificates for the website are used.
There are more than 138 billion websites on the internet that have SSL certificates. And what do you think this number is going to increase or not?
What Do SSL Certificates Do?
The SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and the TLS (Transport layer security) are the digital security protocols that are used to encrypt the communication between the client and the server. The SSL protocols keep sensitive information like your passwords and payment information secure.
The SSL protocol is the old version of security protocol and the TLS security protocol is the relatively newer version. Both of the protocols are written and deployed for one purpose only to keep the communication between the user and the server secure and sensitive information secure. You can easily identify a website with an SSL encryption certificate if it shows a “Lock” symbol before the website address.
The SSL certificate is signed by an authentic certificate authority. Through this method, hackers are prevented from creating fake certificates and infiltrating into the websites to gain unauthorized access.
Typically, chrome or whatever browser you use will warn the user when you access the insecure website with an invalid security certificate. But how does the browser recognize an invalid certificate? The browser tries to trace back to the root of the certificate authority. The browser will halt the connection if it fails to verify the SSL certificate. Certificate validation failure is caused by the mismatch in the names of the already listed certificates. Therefore, it is suggested and highly recommended to avoid opening such websites.
Types Of SSL Certificates
Three types of SSL certificates are used for specific purposes. The encryption level, however, is the same for every SSL certificate.
Extended Validation SSL
The Extended Validation SSL checks if a particular applicant has the right to use a specific domain name. It is a domain certificate issued to users when buying a certain SSL certificate.
Organization Validation SSL
The organization validation SSL combines both Extended Validation and Organization validation because it does 2 jobs; it checks the right of the applicant of a particular user to use a specific domain PLUS it conducts a critical examination of the organization.
Domain Validation SSL
The domain validation certificate is issued instantly and supports all the features of Organization Validation SSL. The Domain Validation SSL does not require any Company Paperwork.
Error Types of SSL Certificates:
Internet is the major source of knowledge and communication. But the internet is also an unsecured place. The SSL certificates are now crucial for internet security.
SSL Certificate Expired Fix:
Just like other legal documents the SSL certificates also needs renewal to keep the security update. Once the expiration date of the SSL certificate is passed the SSL certificate will cease to work and the website will be left open for attacks. And, whenever a user tries to access the website the browser will display a warning “website connection not secure” before opening the page. The expired SSL certificate error can be fixed easily just renew the SSL certificate before it expires.
HTTP and HTTPS Protocol Error:
For secure communication and browsing, all of the content (images, Documents, Videos) should be coming from an HTTPS secure link. If the data/content is not received from an HTTPS link then the visitors will always get a warning whenever users try to access the website. This shows that the security certificate presented on the website was issued for a different Domain name. To resolve this issue you should always add a redirection link from http://www.example.com to https://www.example.com URL of the website.
Domain Name Mismatch Error
The domain name mismatch security certificate problem arises when the name on the SSL certificate and typed URL name does not match. The mismatch meaning that the SSL certificate was created for the domain name. The reason behind this SSL certificate problem is kind of simple and funny. This error can be caused by simply not using “www.” in the URL name. For example, the domain name of your website is “www.domain-name.com” and you typed in “domain-name.com.” to avoid this error it is suggested to type the correct and complete domain name.
Mixed Content From HTTP and HTTPS:
This one is a simple SSL certificate issue is caused by loading a certain item from an HTTP URL while the other items are loading from the HTTPS URL. It does not matter if there is only one piece of content is loading from HTTP the browser will show you a warning or an error message. To resolve this issue, make sure to transfer all the content to HTTPS protocol.
SSL Certificate Might Be Revoked:
If you are a new administrator and do not have the experience to install an SSL certificate this might end up resulting in connection errors. To resolve this error it is recommended to contact a support team who can efficiently install the SSL certificate and solve the issue.
Conclusion:
In this article, we discussed almost everything about SSL certificates, what are they, how they work, and what are issues people can face using SSL certificates. The SSL certificates are very crucial to Domain security. You should be aware of the SSL expiry check. In the end, one thing I would like to say that you should stay conscious about accessing the website without SSL Certificates.
