What is SSL?
The SSL (and TLS) protocol is the Web standard for encrypting communications between users and SSL (secure sockets layer) e-commerce sites. Data sent via an SSL connection is protected by encryption, a mechanism that prevents eavesdropping and tampering with any transmitted data. SSL provides businesses and consumers with the confidence that private data sent to a Web site, such as credit card numbers, are kept confidential. Web server certificates (also known as secure server certificates or SSL certificates) are required to initialize an SSL session.
Customers know when they have an SSL session with a website when their browser displays the little gold padlock and the address bar begins with a https rather than http. SSL certificates can be used on
webservers for Internet security and mailservers such as imap, pop3 and smtp for mail collection / sending security.
What is a RapidSSL Certificate?
RapidSSL Certificates uniquely enable businesses to obtain low cost 1 year fully functional single root trusted SSL certificates and are ideal for websites conducting light - medium levels of ecommerce.
RapidSSL (a subsidiary of GeoTrust) owns the root used to issue the certificates, making RapidSSL both stable and far easier to install than a chained root install certificate.
RapidSSL lowers the barrier of entry for companies that want single root SSL security by providing immediately issued certificates at one of the lowest cost available.
What is a Single Root SSL Certificate?
When connecting to a webserver over SSL, the visitor's browser decides whether or not to trust the website's SSL certificate based on which Certification Authority has issued the actual SSL certificate.
To determine this, the browser looks at its list of trusted issuing authorities - represented by a collection of Trusted Root CA certificates added into the browser by the browser vendor (such as
Microsoft and Netscape).
Most SSL certificates are issued by CAs who own and use their own Trusted Root CA certificates, such as those issued by GeoTrust and RapidSSL. As GeoTrust and RapidSSL is known to browser vendors as a trusted issuing authority, its Trusted Root CA certificate has already been added to all popular browsers, and hence is already trusted. These SSL certificates are known as "single root" SSL
certificates. RapidSSL, a subsidiary of GeoTrust, owns the Equifax Secure eBusiness CA-1 root used to issue its certificates.
Some Certification Authorities, like Comodo, do not have a Trusted Root CA certificate present in browsers, therefore they need a "chained root" in order for their certificates to be trusted - essentially a CA with a Trusted Root CA certificate issues a "chained" certificate which "inherits" the browser recognition of the Trusted Root CA. These SSL certificates are known as "chained root" SSL certificates.
Installation of chained root certificates are more complex and some web servers are not compatible with chained root certificates.
For a Certification Authority to have its own Trusted Root CA certificate already present in browsers is a clear sign that they are long-time, stable and credible organizations who have long term
relationships with the browser vendors (such as Microsoft and Netscape) for the inclusion of their Trusted Root CA certificates. For this reason, such CAs are seen as being considerably more credible
and stable than chained root certificate providers who do not have a direct relationship with the browser vendors. You can view the Certification Authorities who have their own root certificates by viewing the list in your browser.
What browser versions are compatible with RapidSSL?
RapidSSL is compatible with IE 5.01+, Netscape 4.7+, Mozilla 1+, AOL 5+ and many newer Windows and Mac based browsers and are single root install certificates (they do not use chaining technology),
meaning that they are compatible with SSLv2 and SSLv3. Single root certificates are also more widely accepted by web servers with some web servers not accepting chained root technology. ChainedSSL certificates use chaining technology and requires the webserver to be SSL v3 or above compatible.
