Selling and buying products online has become a regular activity for many consumers and businesses alike. In the early days of the Internet, you had to simply trust that what an online retailer said on their website was the truth. Doing internet business was remarkably different from meeting someone face to face in an office to shake hands, sign papers, and exchange money. Because of the anonymity afforded by online merchandising, it didn’t take long for some unscrupulous website owners to discover the ease of deception afforded by the Internet, and take advantage of unsuspecting customers who had no way of verifying that they were legitimate.

A digital or ssl certificate is a business credential used by online companies to identify machines and people. It is similar to a driver’s license, because it is issued by a reputable third party, termed a certificate authority. A digital certificate can be used to encrypt and sign digital content, because it consists of cryptographic information. By encrypting digitally, the contents of an attachment or message cannot be altered or tampered with while they are being delivered. Digital encryption can be compared to the centuries-old practice of sealing letters with a wax seal on the envelope. Read the rest of this entry »