Keep Your Customers Data Safe

A PerformanceHost.net SSL Certificate secures safe, easy and convenient Internet shopping. Once an Internet user enters a secure area — by entering credit card information, e-mail address or other personal data, for example — the shopping site’s SSL certificate enables the browser and Web server to build a secure, encrypted connection. The SSL “handshake” process, which establishes the secure session, takes place discreetly behind the scenes, ensuring an uninterrupted shopping experience for the consumer. A “padlock” icon in the browser’s status bar and the “https://” prefix in the URL are the only visible indications of a secure session in progress.

By contrast, if a user attempts to submit personal information to an unsecured Web site (i.e., a site that is not protected with a valid SSL certificate), the browser’s built-in security mechanism will trigger a warning to the user, reminding him/her that the site is not secure and that sensitive data might be intercepted by third parties. Faced with such a warning, most Internet users likely will look elsewhere to make a purchase. A “padlock” icon in the browser’s status bar indicates that a secure session is in progress.

Up to 256-Bit Encryption

PerformanceHost.net SSL certificates support both industry-standard 128-bit (used by all banking infrastructures to safeguard sensitive data) and high-grade 256-bit SSL encryption to secure online transactions. The actual encryption strength on a secure connection using a digital certificate is determined by the level of encryption supported by the user’s browser and the server that the Web site resides on. For example, the combination of a Firefox browser and an Apache 2.X Web server enables up to 256-bit AES encryption with PerformanceHost.net certificates.

Encryption strength is measured in key length — number of bits in the key. To decipher an SSL communication, one needs to generate the correct decoding key. Mathematically speaking, 2n possible values exist for an n-bit key. Thus, 40-bit encryption involves 240 possible values. 128- and 256-bit keys involve a staggering 2128 and 2256 possible combinations, respectively, rendering the encrypted data de facto impervious to intrusion. Even with a brute-force attack (the process of systematically trying all possible combinations until the right one is found) cracking a 128- or 256-bit encryption is computationally unfeasible.