Staying Secure
4th May 2016
Staying Secure
4th May 2016
- 2 minute read
We hear about data security every day, its a common theme on the web and more and more websites are doing their bit.
SSL (Secure Socket Layers), is an encryption protocol, wait, don’t switch off just yet, it might sound like something you’d never need to know about but you see it every day, its all neatly tucked away in the little padlock in your browser next to the name of the website you’re visiting.
What the padlock denotes is that the connection between your computer and the website you are visiting is encrypted, just like this one. This means anyone who was able to intercept the information sent over that connection would be unable to read it, which is good news when you are handing over sensitive data when internet shopping and banking.
So now you may be thinking well my website isn’t a bank or even an online shop, what do I need encryption for? There are a few reasons you may want to consider it, do you collect any personally identifiable or sensitive information on your website, do you have a place where you log into using a username and a password, do your clients log in?
There is also another reason. Search rankings. That’s right, search engines will adjust rankings based on if your site has SSL or not, and you guessed it, up with and down without. Google in particular are working very hard to move us to a secure web and major browser vendors are on board too, they are set to prominently display when a site is not secure meaning it will become very obvious to your visitors if your site is not secure,
SSL is no longer nearly as expensive as it once was, it used to be the preserve of big websites but its now far more affordable. Before too much longer more websites than not will employ SSL and we don’t think that’s a bad thing. So how do you set about getting a certificate for your website? Talk to us or your hosting company today.
If you’d like to discuss your website security, hosting or your next project, please get in touch.