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Posts Tagged ‘ssl certificate’

Creating Secure Websites and Forms: What You Need to Know

Tuesday, October 26th, 2021

Creating a website with “secure” components requires more than slapping together some web pages and adding an SSL Certificate. All a certificate does is create a thin veneer of security. It does not go very far to protect whatever sensitive data necessitated security in the first place. Naive attempts at security can ultimately make the data less secure and more likely to be compromised by creating an appetizing target for the unscrupulous.

So, what do you do beyond paying big bucks to hire a developer with significant security expertise? Start with this article. Its purpose is to shed light on many of the most significant factors in creating secure websites and forms and what you can do to address them. At a minimum, reading this article will help you intelligently discuss your website security with the developers you ultimately hire.

creating secure website forms

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Tags: cross site scripting, eavesdropping, https, man-in-the-middle, pgp, phishing, s/mime, secureform, ssl, ssl certificate, trust, web site security
Posted in AAA Featured Articles, LuxSci Library: Security and Privacy, LuxSci Library: Web Design and Programming, Popular Posts, Secure Form
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SMTP TLS: All About Secure Email Delivery over TLS

Monday, October 2nd, 2017

TLS stands for “Transport Layer Security” and is the successor of “SSL” (Secure Socket Layer). TLS is one of the standard ways that computers on the internet transmit information over an encrypted channel. In general, when one computer connects to another computer and uses TLS, the following happens:

  1. Computer A connects to Computer B (no security)
  2. Computer B says “Hello” (no security)
  3. Computer A says, “Let’s talk securely over TLS” (no security)
  4. Computer A and B agree on how to do this (secure)
  5. The rest of the conversation is encrypted (secure)

In particular:

  • The meat of the conversation is encrypted
  • Computer A can verify the identity of Computer B (by examining its SSL certificate, which is required for this dialog)
  • The conversation cannot be eavesdropped upon (without Computer A knowing)
  • A third party cannot modify the conversation
  • Third parties cannot inject other information into the conversation.

TLS and SSL are used for many different reasons on the internet and help make the internet a more secure place. One of the popular uses of TLS is SMTP for securely transmitting email messages between servers. See also:

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Tags: AES256, opportunistic TLS, secure, smtp, smtp tls, ssl, ssl certificate, starttls, tls
Posted in AAA Featured Articles, LuxSci Library: HIPAA, LuxSci Library: Security and Privacy, Popular Posts
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The Case For Email Security

Tuesday, March 31st, 2015

We all know that regular email is insecure; however, it may surprise you to learn just how insecure it really is. For example, did you know that messages you deleted years ago may be on servers halfway around the world? Or that your messages can sometimes be read and modified in transit, even before they reach their destination? Did you know that forging email is very, very easy? Can you trust what you read in an email? Email was not designed with security in mind, and as a result, many different solutions have evolved to plug the multitude of resulting issues.

This article will explain how email works, what the real email security issues are, what mitigations to these are generally in use, and what else you can do to protect your email.

Case for Email Security

Information security and integrity are essential as we use email to send confidential and sensitive information over this medium every day. While reading this article, imagine how these security problems could affect your business, your personal life, and your identity if they have not already.

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Tags: asymmetric encryption, eavesdropping, email security, false messages, http, identity theft, imap, invasion of privacy, message modification, Message Replay, opportunistic TLS, pgp, pop, repudiation, s/mime, Simple Mail Transport Protocol, smtp, SMTP relaying, smtp server, ssl, ssl certificate, symmetric encryption, tls, Unprotected Backups
Posted in AAA Featured Articles, LuxSci Library: Security and Privacy
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Do I need to Buy an SSL Certificate to use Secure Email?

Monday, September 23rd, 2013

Our sales staff have been asked this question countless times.  It is a natural assumption that because SSL and TLS encryption of email (and web sites) requires use of an “SSL certificate“, that one must buy an SSL certificate in order to use such a service.  Fortunately, the answer is always

You do not need to buy your own SSL certificate to use secure email.

We’ll explain why.

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Tags: client certificate, email security, encryption, secure email, ssl, ssl certificate, ssl email, tls
Posted in LuxSci Library: Security and Privacy
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Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Standard SSL Certificates are issued by an Certificate Authority (CA) such as Thawte after the CA performs some basic standard validation on the identity of the certificate request to ensure that the certificate is not issued to “the wrong hands”.

The types of validation performed for standard SSL certificates vary by the type and cost of the certificate, but include:

  • A confirmation email message sent to the domain administrator as specified in the domain’s entry in the WHOIS database
  • A confirmation email message sent to a standard administrative email address at the domain itself, such as “admin@domain.com”.
  • The name of the organization owning the domain name may be validated.

You should purchase SSL Certificates that use the above forms of validation in order to:

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Tags: certificate authority, ev, extended validation, extended validation SSL certificate, ssl, ssl certificate, Thawte
Posted in New Feature Announcements
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