SSL Certificate
Definition
An SSL certificate is a digital credential that verifies a website's identity and enables an encrypted connection between a web server and a user's browser.
When you visit a website, your browser and the website's server communicate. Without an SSL certificate, this communication is sent in plain text, meaning anyone intercepting the data could read it. An SSL certificate, installed on the web server, establishes a secure channel using Transport Layer Security (TLS) or its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). This encryption scrambles the information, making it unreadable to unauthorized parties, thus protecting sensitive data like login credentials, credit card numbers, and personal details.
You can often identify a website secured with an SSL certificate by the padlock icon in your browser's address bar and the "https://" prefix in the URL, rather than "http://".
This technology is standard practice for any website that handles user information, particularly e-commerce sites, banking portals, and any platform requiring user authentication.