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Azalee Freas
Thanks to SSL certificates, it is easier now than ever to check if a connection is secured enough or not. So, how do you check the SSL certificate on any website? To check an SSL certificate on any website, all you need to do is follow two simple steps.
Businesses worldwide are increasingly going through digital transformations. Data that was previously locked up in bulky files are easily accessible over the internet. But that does not mean it is any less sensitive or loses its confidentiality nature. Especially data that involves your private information and financial information must be protected with strong security practices. And that is where SSL comes in.
You can easily find out whether your connection is secure by checking for the SSL certificate issued by the website you are trying to access. As a best practice, it is recommended that you only connect with and supply data to sites that have an SSL certificate. Not having an SSL certificate should automatically indicate a less trustable site, and you have to be careful when clicking on such unsecured links and sites.
So, how to check HTTPS? There is an effortless way to check if a site uses SSL certificates. Every site that uses the SSL certificate system will have the HTTPS protocol specifier in its web address. While HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol, the S adds the security part provided by SSL. So check for these two things to know whether a site is SSL protected.
SSL certificates are small snippets of data associated with a site that indicates that the site has implemented the SSL security feature. SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer, a security protocol that defines an encryption standard using the public / private key mechanism.
SSL certificate is also used with TLS protocol, an enhanced security protocol used in SSL by most modern browsers and sites. Every connection made to a TLS/SSL-enabled site is encrypted. Anyone trying to access the site without the proper credentials will be denied access and will only intercept garbled values.
All modern browsers make it easy for you to quickly check if a site is secured by SSL encryption or not. The easiest way to know if a site is SSL encrypted or not is to check its URL. The URL of the site should start with HTTPS.
If you own a site and want to check your SSL certificate, the easiest way is to check your dashboard for any approved certificate issued by a CA. If you have multiple SSL certificates installed for your site, you can locate them using any of the two following methods.
If not using a tool, you can manually search and locate installed certificates in certificate stores. Certificate stores are containers within the server environment that contain all your certificates. Based on the type of certificates stored, Certificate stores can be classified as:
To view a particular certificate in the MMC snap-in, choose it from the left pane where the certificate store is present. The available certificates from the selected certificate store will be displayed on the middle pane of the window.
In most cases, a certificate will be replaced once it nears its expiry date. But certain conditions like the heartbleed bug, SHA-1 end-of-life migration, company mergers, changes in security policy may demand you to replace certificates.
To check if SSL certificate is installed, you can use the Certificate Manager tool and check its validity period. Another alternative option is to use the sigcheck Windows Sysinternals utility to verify TLS version. Download the utility and run it with the switch command sigcheck -tv. It will list all the trusted Microsoft root Certificate lists.
Before installing an SSL certificate, you need to make sure you have valid certificates issued from a CA. To do so, you will have to generate a CSR. CSR stands for Certificate Signing Request, which is how you make an application to receive an SSL certificate from a CA.
A CSR consists of a public key and other details required to validate your identity. You will have to provide information such as the Distinguished Name (DN), Common Name (CN), and fully qualified Domain Name (FQDN) for your website that needs the certificate.
You can now submit this CSR to request signed certificate files from a valid Certifying Authority. After the necessary domain and company validation, the CA will provide you with three files, the private key, the certificate file, and the intermediate certificate file, which can be used to install SSL in your server.
While CA-signed certificates are the recommended and trusted way to implement SSL, you can also use self-signed certificates if required. But doing so will throw warning messages in the browsers as it will not be considered from a trusted source.
Restart your server after making the configuration changes and check if the SSL certificate has been installed correctly. If you find any issues, do contact your certifying authority to ensure you have the valid files.
To test whether the SSL installation is successful, you can try visiting your site from different browsers and see if the URL has been appropriately changed to HTTPS protocol. The security information is displayed on the browser, as explained earlier.
Click View to review the details and then OK to finish the binding. Steps To Renew An SSL CertificateAs mentioned earlier, every SSL certificate comes with an expiry date, after which the browsers will start showing warning messages when the site is accessed. An expired SSL certificate is a security vulnerability you need to take care of at the right time. To avoid the security complications and possible low trust score of an expired SSL certificate, you must renew them on time.
On the next prompt for Renewing CA certificate, you either choose to generate a new public and private key pair or keep using the old pair. Complete the process, and you will find that the certificate is renewed.
Based on the type of validation you seek, SSL certificates can be classified into three types. While the encryption levels are the same for all the types, the various verification and vetting processes involved in getting the certificate issued from the CV vary. A high validation level indicates that the website is highly credible and trustworthy.
Only the domain name validity is verified in this type of certificate, and no additional information is displayed on the Secure Site seal. Hence, the DV certificate is considered the least secure of all the SSL certificate types as you cannot be sure who is on the other side of the request. These certificates are issued very quickly as there is not much validation process involved. It is also the cheapest option available which will suit site owners who need a quick SSL certificate without added effort.
An EV level certificate requires a thorough vetting process as defined by the EV guidelines. The CA forum initially ratified these guidelines in the year 2007. Some of the requirements for getting an EV certificate are:
EV certificates are the most accountable and trustable certificates acknowledged by browsers and user clients. It can be provided to any type of business. Additional guidelines list down the various categories under which the organization must be audited to qualify for an EV certificate.
Before choosing a particular SSL certificate, you need to consider your actual requirements, company situation, and urgency to acquire an SSL certificate. Here are some pointers to think about when choosing your SSL certificate type.
You must have a registered domain available and ready to apply for an SSL certificate. Because even the least level of validation involves checking whether you own a domain name or not. If you thought about using your internal server name for getting the certificate issue, remember it is no more possible. The rules implemented from 2015 onwards restrict CAs from issuing certificates to internal server names or reserved IPs as these names cannot be verified to identify a company that runs them uniquely.
Are you running a simple website blog? Then maybe you can do well with a DV certificate your web. If you are running a business site but do not carry out any personal data transfer or financial transactions, an OV certificate may suit you. But if you are running an eCommerce site, the recommended validation level is provided with the EV certificate.
If you want to secure multiple domains, say, for instance, yoursite.com, yoursite.in, yoursite.net and so on, you will have to buy a multi-domain certificate. Multi-domain certificates are costlier and are alternatingly called SAN certificates as they are used for Subject Alternative domain Names.
To secure multiple subdomains, say like blog.yoursite.com, cart.yoursite.com, you need to use a Wildcard domain, which allows you to cover a whole range of subdomains with the *.yoursite.com format. But going for a wildcard can be an expensive option if you have just a handful of subdomains. In that case, you can opt for multi-domain certificates to cover all your subdomains.
As already mentioned, all SSL certificates come with an expiry date, after which they will be deemed invalid, and browsers will start throwing up security warnings. You can choose to renew your SSL certificates or remove them and operate your site as a regular HTTP site without the added security layer.
SSL certificate works as a credential that shows a credible and acknowledged site by the corresponding Certificate Authority. It implements encrypted message transfers making sure your data is always protected and is handled by verified sources only. Here is a detailed explanation of how SSL certificates work.
In general, when you send a data request over the internet to a website, the server receives the request and then works on it and sends back a corresponding result with relevant data. The process is relatively straightforward but is vulnerable to intervention attacks. If a hacker were to intercept the data during the request/response data, they can easily get access to your private and confidential data and make use of it in malicious ways.
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