SSL - Web Server Encryption
SSL
(Secure Sockets Layer) encryption provides a level of security and privacy for those wishing to conduct
secure transactions over the Internet. Introduced by Netscape
Communications, the SSL protocol protects HTTP transmissions over the Internet by adding a layer of
encryption. This insures that your transactions are not subject to sniffing by a third party. For
companies wishing to conduct E-Commerce, such as receiving credit card
numbers or other sensitive information, SSL is a must. Your VPS2 was configured with SSL support built in.
In addition to the Web, SSL can also be used for other internet protocols.
SSL is normally used in tandem with a Digital
Certificate. A Digital Certificate gives your customers the assurance that your web site is legitimately
yours and not that of an impostor. It contains information about who owns the certificate (company name,
domain name, contact address, etc) as well as information about the issuing Certificate Authority (GeoTrust,
VeriSign, etc). It also provides you with a legal basis to perform transactions on the Internet. By default,
you were assigned a cname that allows you to use our securesites.com certificate.
Using SSL
You can access all of the web content on your Virtual Private Server (documents, images, scripts, etc) via
SSL by using the https:// prefix rather than the http:// prefix. For example, your secure web
site can be accessed like this:
https://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/
You can send the data collected by a form on your web site to a CGI script via SSL by including something like
this in form page HTML:
<form method="POST" action="https://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/cgi-bin/script.cgi">
Be sure that you do not reference embedded document content (images, etc) insecurely by
using the http:// prefix, like this:
<img src="http://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/image.gif">
More Information
For technical documentation of SSL, see:
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