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Why DV SSL Certificates Are Not Enough for Financial Transactions?

OV and EV SSL Certificates Must Be Preferred For Websites with Payment Gateway

There is no doubt about the fact that SSL certificates are of utmost importance for data security and privacy. A large part of such significance is down to the mounting number of cyber-attacks. This is why 2017 is dubbed as the year of encryption.

The SSL certificates serve two purposes, namely security and identification. As far as the security is concerned, the SSL certificates protect the data transmitted between the browser and the web server. This is called encryption. Whether it’s DV, OV or EV – all SSL certificates provide a similar level of encryption. Now you might be wondering how do they differ. Well, let us explain it to you.

The DV SSL certificate is the most basic level of encryption, as it only involves the verification of the domain ownership. As a result, the DV SSL-enabled sites lack trust-signs such as company name in the URL. Granted, your connection to the server is secure but you can’t know if the website is genuine or not. Any Tom, Dick, or Harry can make a spoofy website of a company by installing a DV SSL certificate and can trick the users to provide their sensitive information. This is called phishing. You may think you are on the website of ABC company, but in reality this website might be nothing but a scam. This is where the Organization Validation and Extended Validation SSL certificates enter the picture.

If anybody wants to have an OV or EV SSL installed on their website, he/she must go through a rigorous vetting process. This process involves all the details of the organization. If the Certificate Authority (CA) finds all the documents/information satisfactory and genuine, then and then only the SSL certificate will be issued. This is done to make sure that only the right organizations get the hold of SSL certificates. In simple terms, if the website belongs to ABC corporation, then the certificate will only be issued to ABC corporation.

When it comes to the sites accepting financial transactions, this plays a major role. This is why the e-commerce websites are equipped with EV SSL certificates. The OV SSL and EV SSL certificates enable trust-signs such as padlock, site seals, displaying verified company name in the address bar (only in EV SSL), etc. They are very significant from user trust’s point of view. These symbols are called ‘Trust-Signs’ for a reason. The users can identify that the website is genuine and belongs to the said organization. Thus, any payment made on the website is transferred only to that organization only.

Phishing is increasingly becoming one of the most widespread methods. This is due to its lack of sophistication. It doesn’t require the hacker to code his/her way through thousands of lines. All he/she needs to do is to bait a user to click on a malicious link and the rest is done by the user him/herself. When a site has OV or EV SSL installed, phishing attacks cannot take place as the fraudsters cannot issue the certificate in the name of the organization. Therefore, the chances of a phishing attack taking place are practically zero.

Apart from the phishing attacks, customer trust is also a factor for choosing the advanced level SSL certificates. Seeing the trust-signs, the customer can be sure that his/her sensitive data won’t be compromised. This makes him/her trust the website and encourages him/her to make transactions on the website. As a result, it increases your order-conversion rate and thereby, boosting the revenues.

Keeping in mind all the benefits involved, it’s safe to say that only the OV or EV SSL certificates should be preferred for websites accepting financial transactions.

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