There are approximately 193,000,000 registered domains and new registrations are growing at a rapid pace. Every day thousands of new websites are launched, and most of these domains are to support these sites. The majority of websites have a section where users can log in and perform certain tasks such as check their email, update their personal information, or purchase products and services. To log in, users enter their user name and password in a box and click the submit button. What they may not realize is that both of these sensitive pieces of data are now being transmitted from the user’s PC to the web server, unencrypted, if there’s no SSL installed. What happens if someone is monitoring the data traffic and hijacks their information? Bingo! They have access to their account. Keeping their account data secure is probably one of their biggest concerns and yet they’ve just revealed their ‘secret’ login information to complete strangers. Plus—it doesn’t stop there—since most people use the same user name and password for other accounts, including their bank accounts. Unfortunately, most companies aren’t taking this seriously enough because, in their mind, they’re not storing data. Sort of a mute point if they’re enabling access to everyone’s private information. Every website—without exception—should have an SSL certificate installed and users should only be allowed to log in using the HTTPS mode. Today you can get an SSL certificate for less than $20 per month, and what it ultimately saves companies and their customers is priceless. As consumers get more and more security savvy, they’ll only do business with companies that care enough to take these simple and affordable steps to protect their data. Keeping my private information secure is very important to me. I personally will not log in to a website that’s not protected with an SSL certificate. How do I know if it has an SSL certificate? I look for the padlock symbol in the upper-right browser bar. If displayed, the padlock gives me peace of mind that my information is being encrypted during transmission. It’s a simple and inexpensive thing but, to me, that little symbol is a big deal. Here are some examples: CHROME: INTERNET EXPLORER
