What are SSL Certificates?

SSL certificates are important in IT. You go visit a web site and you want to know it’s safe. That the owner is who they say they are. The data on the site itself is secure and it’s not a fake site created by a bad actor.

SSL stands for “Secure Socket Layer”. Why? Um….ok, that’s not important right now. But it does.

What is important is what SSL Certificates do. Companies purchase SSL Certs from 3rd party resellers like GoDaddy or Network Solutions. These 3rd parties verify that the company is who they say they are. These certificates can be for a specific website or for the entire organization. When the company receives the SSL certificate (essentially a file), they apply it to their web sites.

Once this in place, your web site is “secure”. Some browsers show this with a lock icon to the left of the web address. You can also tell when the address starts with “https:” as opposed to “http:”. When you see the “https:” you can be reasonably confident that the web provider is who they say they are, their web site hasn’t been blatantly changed, and the data you share with them is encrypted.

But SSL certificates have a lifespan. Usually, you purchase them for 1 or 2 years. And when they expire and they’re not renewed? They just stop working. Which can be kinda embarrassing.

Just ask Microsoft.

Back on June 9th, the certificate for the Windows Insider software testing program expired. Folks who tried to visit the site got the message “Your connection is not private” with the browsers advising users not to stay on the site. Microsoft was able to fix the error within a few hours, and you could make the claim that it’s not a critical site. But still…

So are you keeping track of certificates for your organization? Are you making sure they are being renewed on time? If not, contact us!