Posts Tagged ‘Wildcard SSL’

6
October
2010

SSL is something that everyone uses, but dealing with it is a rare occasion. SSL technology does everything for itself and hardly is there a need of a human involvement of any kind in a day-to-day affair. This naturally creates confusion when a problem arises. Here, I have tried to help SSL users with the few ailments that they often become a victim of.

SSL scuffle: This happens when you accidentally find out that your SSL Certificate has expired only after being informed on quite a few SSL errors as complained from the customers. I would say what makes this happen is the negligence and carelessness. You clearly receive the date of expiration on your SSL Certificate that gets back from the CA. Reminder emails can be filled and forgotten or may go unnoticed in the absence of a concerned person. The best you can do is to put your SSL’s expiry date in a personal space such as your Outlook or Google calendar.

Domain name mismatch: The nature of the problem is associated with whether your site shows up as “sitename.com” or “www.sitename.com.” The problem is not with the opening of the site with punching in a URL “www.sitename.com” for a domain that’s registered as “sitename.com” as you get an automatic HTTP 301 redirect to “sitename.com,” but the domain name consistency is needed for the functioning of your SSL Certificate. If you have taken your SSL Certificate for “www.sitename.com” and you link to “sitename.com,” SSL Certificate will not recognize it as the correct domain, except a Wildcard Certificate, and you will get an SSL warning. To avoid this from happening, make sure that you pick the fully qualified domain name in the field “common-name” while applying for an SSL.

Intermediate SSL Certificates: This is the perhaps the biggest confusion. It is a necessity now with most CAs to use the intermediate SSL Certificates. These are responsible for protecting your root CA key and also allow companies that have not gotten their root certificates into your browser to sell SSL Certificates. Well, each certificate authority may have several different intermediate certificates and you need to pick the right one. In order to make sure that you do this, test it using a validation tool from your certificate authority vendor.

28
July
2010

Extended Validation, the next generation of SSL Certificates, was designed to impart greater strength to Ecommerce security and to guard against phishing attacks. With the green color that it turns on at the address bar, your website is visibly more secure and trusted than with other types of certificates. Through it, Ecommerce merchants can increase trust and build long-term revenue with a reduction in shopping cart abandonment.

If you are looking for a feasible online business security solution involving multiple websites, EV Multi Domain SSL Certificates (MDCs) are a good choice. A single EV Multi-Domain SSL Certificate can secure your multiple websites, and yes, the regular EV SSL indicator, i.e. the green address bar, would be displayed to the visitors of all the websites secured with that one cert building their trust and assuring security of the highest levels. What convenience and cost-effectiveness for online businesses!

Use: EV green bar security on all the websites through an MDC represents a breakthrough in the web business arena by bringing a high level of commercial viability. You can specify up to 100 domains in the Subject Alternative Name field of a certificate through an MDC.

Comodo’s EV MDC Certificate costs less than what it costs for a lone EV SSL Certificate of some CAs. Its cost goes like this: $809.10 per year for 3 domains and $99.00 per additional domain year thereafter. With additional features such as SGC capability, dedicated account manager, and free phone priority, this Extended Validation Certificate becomes a complete trust package that’s unparalleled in the industry.

Benefits:

1# Save huge chunk of money per year over the cost of individual EV Certificates

2# On a single certificate, secure up to 100 fully qualified domain names

3# Additional domains can be added at any point during the lifecycle of the certificate costing you just $99.00 per cert per year

4# Easy to deploy using Comodo’s patent-pending EV-AUTO Enhancer technology

5# Simplify SSL management process with just one certificate to manage all your domains and enjoy the convenience

24
July
2010

First of all, what’s a Wildcard SSL Certificate? It’s an SSL Certificate that secures a website URL along with its multiple sub-domains.

If you have a Wildcard SSL Certificate, you have………

  1. A website URL secured with its multiple process-specific sub-domains, such as your base domain *.myorganization.com with sub-domains like mail.myorganization.com and payment.myorganization.com.
  2. Cost saving, as you save on multiple single SSL Certificates for each sub-domain.
  3. An unlimited server license so that you use it on as many servers as you want (most SSL Certificates have license for just one physical server).
  4. Easy manageability and convenience as you don’t have to manage several separate SSL Certificates in overheads and renewal.

Ok, let’s now contrast Positive SSL Wildcard Certificate and Platinum SSL Wildcard Certificate.

Both will have the typical Wildcard SSL functionality as mentioned above. However, Platinum SSL Wildcard is a premium class which typically offers you full validation and high level of assurance with 2048-bit industry standard encryption strength available, as compared to 1024-bit industry standard encryption of Positive SSL Wildcard Certificate. On the similarities, both support 128/256 bit level encryption and have 99.3% browser compatibility.

With Positive Wildcard SSL Certificate, you have the advantage of instant issuance, no more paperwork, and low cost. You can avail a discount on multiyear purchase. It is equally trusted as more expensive certificates from RapidSSL and GeoTrust.

But, what’s the extra edge with Platinum is that you get $1,000,000 warranty, dedicated account manager, free HackerGuardian Vulnerability Scan, free corner of trust logo, and 24×7 phone support (for Positive SSL Wildcard that’s email and web support).

22
July
2010

EV is the next generation of SSL Certificates – stringent verification processes developed by Certificate Authority (CA)/Browser Forum ensures your website is visibly more secure and trusted than with other types of certificates.

EV SSL Certificate: It’s a special type of SSL Certificate that not only guards the information between the browser and its final destination but also provides assurance that the final destination, i.e. the certificate requesting body, is authentic and legitimate as verified by the Certificate Authority (CA).

EV SGC SSL Certificate: It is a Server Gated Cryptography (SGC) enabled EV SSL Certificate. SGC provides the ability for a certificate to ‘up-rate’ older browsers that are only capable of weak, 40-bit encryption to ultra secure 128/256-bit encryption without the need to upgrade. It was introduced at a time when stringent United States encryption export laws would allow browsers an encryption only at 40-bit level. Understandably, there are still millions of users using these older browsers. Websites wishing to offer the highest level of trust and 256-bit encrypted transactions to the widest possible customer base should consider EV SGC SSL Certificates.

EV SSL Certificate
COMODO EV SSL Certificate vs. COMODO EV SGC SSL Certificate

Both offer full business validation, 128- to 256-bit strong encryption or 2048-bit industry standard encryption, lifespan unlimited re-issuance policy, and green address bar (an indicator of company’s verification by COMODO) supported with advanced browsers. COMODO provides the same strengths to both except that the EV SGC SSL Certificate employs SGC technology enabling the certificate to up-rate an older browser to 128/256-bit encryption without any need to upgrade.

So, there’s something extra with a COMODO EV SGC SSL Certificate and that is you can protect the widest customer base imaginable as SGC technology will upgrade older browsers, those with just 40-bit encryption level, so they can connect at full 128- or 256-bit encryption levels meaning you convert more sales by protecting more customers than with a regular SSL Certificate.