How Does SSL Work?
Every modern web browser has built into it a very sophisticated encryption system that allows secure “conversations” with webservers equipped with an SSL secure server (See endnote). This is about to get pretty technical so I am simplifying it greatly. If you find your eyes glazing over, don’t worry. The main message here is that SSL ensures an encrypted communication between the customer’s web browser and the merchant’s webserver. This produces both customer confidence and a very secure communication system. Use it! But some of you want to know how it works, so here goes. Keys and Identities You remember the Decoder Ring you found in a cereal box when you were a kid? It consisted of a wheel with the alphabet on each of two rotating discs. If you someone sent you a message where the “key” is A=L, you’d set the A above the L, and then determine that B=M and C=N, etc. Modern cryptography uses a very complex algorithm or formula to encode messages using a key. Rather than A=L, the key wil
An SSL certificate is a file installed on the web server that a web site is running on. This file is composed of two segments. The first is the public key, which encrypts data. The second is the private key, which decrypts data. When a client, such as a web browser, connects to an SSL secured server a unique session is created using these two keys. All data transmitted during this session is protected, and cannot be decrypted by any party other than that specific client and the server.
