What is Secure Socket Layer (SSL)? Basically, it is the standard security technology used to encrypt online data. SSL offers encrypted communication between the web server (server-side) and the customer’s web browser (client-side) when transmitting personal information such as credit card number, name and address. The SSL protocol uses Certificate Authority (CA) to issue ‘digital certificates’ to the authenticated company.
The whole SSL process involves authenticating the server’s identity, the website’s identity and once the authentication is verified, the message will be sent in the form of encrypted information to the one who asked for a certificate. Usually, a browser requests a SSL certificate and in turn the web server supplies its public key with the requested certificate. Then, the browser has to verify whether the certificate issued is valid (certified by the authorized parties) and also should verify whether the SSL certificate issued comes from the particular website for which the request has been made.
An SSL certificate contains important details of the owner like his e-mail address, validity period, Distinguished Name...