That padlock you see right next to the URL of the site.
When you connect to the internet, you usually connect through a modem or router.
The trouble is (particularly in public WiFi) that there are other people on the same network, some of these people are able to ‘listen’ for packets (data sent and received through the network).
What an SSL does is actually encrypt information sent and received from a website. So the person ‘listening’ on the network will only see gibberish.
What happens when a website doesn’t have SSL?
In this case, if there happens to be someone listening on the same network as you, anything you type + submit to the website will be visible in clear-text form. For instance, if you entered a website without SSL and wanted to login with your username and password, someone on the network could easily ‘listen’ using a special device (a WiFi adapter with monitor mode) and see in ‘plain text’ form the information you entered (in this case: your username and password).
In the past SSL was only common in shopping websites, as credit-card information was entered it was obligatory for both the security of the customer and liability of the website.
In October, 2017 Google Chrome began displaying the ‘not-secure’ notice on websites that didn’t have an SSL certificate.
On the 8th of February, 2018 Google made it clear that it would demote the pagrank of websites not using an SSL certificate, their by indirectly forcing 90% of website owners to adopt an SSL certificate.
Web Uplink and SSL
All websites designed, developed and hosted by Web Uplink have SSL certificates free of charge and are pre-installed.
We use CloudFlare and Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates on all client-websites as well as our own.
What if I have my own SSL certificate?
We allow for external SSL certificates to be installed on our platforms. Although our system even accomodates for wildcard certificates.
