Information Security continues to be a top priority with enterprises worldwide. One of the first things you can do to help increase information security is to implement an SSL certificate for your website and email server.

Installing an SSL certificate ensures that data that travels across the public internet remains encrypted so that unauthorized parties are unable to snoop on your connection. If you operate an e-commerce website where people directly pay for things using their credit cards, you definitely want to incorporate SSL encryption.

With this in mind, let’s dive deeper into what a SSL Certificate is and why your company should get one today.

SSL Certificates for your Website

Even if you do not sell items directly to consumers on your website, getting an SSL Certificate is probably a good idea. An SSL Certificate guarantees that a private, encrypted connection between the visitor’s PC and your server exists.

This means that data sent to and from your website is 100% private. Even if someone were able to sniff your packets, the SSL Connection would prevent the attacker from gaining any meaningful data from the attack.

Many businesses buy and install an SSL Certificate just to provide the additional assurance to the visitor that your company values consumer privacy. There is no downside to getting an SSL Certificate for your website.

SSL Certificates for your Email Server

Installing an SSL Certificate for your email server helps your organization prevent company data from going across a network without encryption. If you allow your users to access features such as webmail or mobile email, you’ll definitely want to install an SSL Certificate on your email server.

When users access these services, you’ll want to force them to use an encrypted connection. Installing and configuring an SSL Certificate for your email server accomplishes this goal and helps your organization keep it’s data safe from those who wish to snoop on data travelling across the public internet.

How Do I Install an SSL Certificate?

Most of the time, the issuer of your SSL Certificate will provide detailed instructions on how to install an SSL Certificate. Be warned in advance that this procedure is best left to trained professionals.

Incorrectly installing an SSL Certificate can leave your website and email server inoperable thus causing interruptions in your business flow. You may also need to perform configuration changes on your web server in order to force all of your new connections to use your new SSL Certificate.

After your SSL Certificate is installed, you’ll notice that your website’s URL prefix will change from HTTP to HTTPS. In the URL bar of your browser, you’ll also get a notification from browser indicating that your connection to the website is currently utilizing enterprise grade encryption in order to transfer data.

When you implement SSL Certificates for your website and email servers, you can be assured that the data being transferred across the internet can only be deciphered by the intended recipients. In today’s current cyber security climate, fortifying the integrity of your organization’s data transfer methodologies is an absolute must in order to keep private data out of the hands of malicious actors.