SSL Certificates

Earlier, we discussed how relying on SSL Certificate sites seals is not the proper way to confirm if you are connected to a website via SSL. In this tutorial we will outline the proper way.

Any time you are sending personal data or financial information look for the following:
1. Prefix in address bar will be https NOT http. This is not case sensitive.

2. You must have a lock in the status bar located at the bottom of your browser. NEVER as a image on the website itself.

If you do not require a SGC or EV SSL Certificate and want to secure multiple sub domains that DO NOT require access via a mobile or cellular browser, a Wildcard SSL Certificate is perfect. Currently some mobile devices do not support Wildcard SSL certificates properly because they do not match the domain they are running on. For example *.runssl.com is the Wildcard SSL Certifciate for runssl.com. We could run it on store.runssl.com, www.runssl.com, and docs.runssl.com across different physical servers, running different operating systems, and different versions or types of web servers (apache, IIS, etc).

This is only cost effective if you have many sub-domains or different servers to protect because most Wildcard Certifcates cost 10 times the price as a single SSL Certificate. Therefore if you have 3 sub domains you want to protect (store.runssl.com, www.runssl.com, secure.runssl.com), it could make sense to purchase 3 separate single SSL Certificates vs. a Wildcard Certificate. The bonus is that if you do decide to purchase a Wildcard certificate, they are easier to manage.

As a part of the EV Certification, the CA/Browers Forum www.cabforum.org decided that EV Certificates must match the exact domain they run on (www.runssl.com, or store.runssl.com) and do not permit Wildcard EV SSL Certificates to be issued. If you need to run EV SSL Certificates across multiple servers/domains, please contact us for discount pricing.