SSL certificates include: The domain name that the certificate was issued for Which person, organization, or device it was issued to Which certificate authority issued it The certificate authority’s digital signature Associated subdomains Issue date of the certificate Expiration date of the certificate The public key (the private key is kept secret)
There are several different types of SSL certificates. One certificate can apply to a single website or several websites, depending on the type: Single-domain: A single-domain SSL certificate applies to only one domain (a “domain” is the name of a website, like www.cloudflare.com). Wildcard: Like a single-domain certificate, a wildcard SSL certificate applies to only one domain. However, … Read more
Originally, data on the Web was transmitted in plaintext that anyone could read if they intercepted the message. For example, if a consumer visited a shopping website, placed an order, and entered their credit card number on the website, that credit card number would travel across the Internet unconcealed. SSL was created to correct this … Read more
Technically, anyone can create their own SSL certificate by generating a public-private key pairing and including all the information mentioned above. Such certificates are called self-signed certificates because the digital signature used, instead of being from a CA, would be the website’s own private key. But with self-signed certificates, there’s no outside authority to verify … Read more