When you log in to your bank, send a private message, or make an online purchase, you’re sharing sensitive data that must be protected in transit. The safeguard that enabled secure data transmission for decades is Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
Although SSL has since been replaced by its modern successor, Transport Layer Security (TLS), the term “SSL certificate” remains the industry standard. These certificates are the foundation of secure web connections, ensuring that data exchanged between your browser and a website is encrypted and authenticated.
The importance of encrypted, authenticated data transmission is clear: as of 2024, nearly 88% of websites used a valid SSL certificate, a dramatic rise from just a few years prior. This guide will explain what SSL is, why it was retired, how TLS took its place, and why the padlock icon in your browser remains one of the most important trust signals on the internet.
How Do SSL Certificates Work?
An SSL certificate, also known as a digital certificate, is used to authenticate a website’s identity and enable encrypted connections. Think of it like a passport for the internet: it proves that a website is legitimate and not fraudulent or malicious, while also establishing a secure, encrypted channel between the site and the user.
Because these certificates are foundational to secure browsing, they can only be issued by a trusted third party known as a Certificate Authority (CA). The CA verifies the website owner’s identity and domain ownership before issuing a certificate, which acts as a tamper-proof digital seal. Once installed on the website’s origin server, the certificate enables browsers to complete the SSL/TLS handshake and establish a secure session using public/private key cryptography.
When users visit a secure website, their browser requests the site’s certificate, initiating the process of creating an encrypted connection. This process relies on a cryptographic pairing known as a public key and a private key.
- Public Key: Contained in the SSL certificate, this key is openly available; like an unlocked padlock. Anyone can use it to encrypt information, transforming readable data into ciphertext that appears random and unreadable.
- Private Key: Stored securely on the website’s server, this key is the only one that can unlock (decrypt) the data encrypted with the public key.
This system ensures that even if attackers intercept the traffic, the data remains useless without the private key. The foundation of SSL certificates and public/private key encryption is what enables not only secure transactions, but also the safe transmission of sensitive information across the internet.
SSL vs TLS: The Evolution of Web Security
A common point of confusion is the relationship between SSL and its successor, Transport Layer Security (TLS). Is SSL still used today? The short answer is no. The original SSL protocols (SSL 2.0 and SSL 3.0) were officially deprecated years ago after critical vulnerabilities made them unsafe. TLS emerged as the stronger, more modern standard; it’s essentially SSL’s evolution. Today, when browsers show the padlock icon, it’s TLS doing the work.
Similarities Between SSL and TLS
Despite TLS being the current standard, both protocols share the same fundamental goals and architecture. They both use a process called a handshake to authenticate the server and establish a secure session. Both also rely on digital certificates, commonly called SSL Certificates, to bind a website’s identity to its cryptographic keys, facilitating both authentication and encryption.
Key Differences: SSL vs TLS
The primary differences lie in the underlying technology. TLS was designed as a hardened successor to SSL, with several important improvements:
- Stronger Cryptographic Algorithms: TLS supports modern algorithms and cipher suites, replacing older methods that are now considered insecure.
- Improved Handshake Process: The TLS handshake is more efficient and secure, with better protection against common attacks like man-in-the-middle attacks.
- Enhanced Security Features: TLS includes more specific alert messages for various potential security issues and offers better overall protocol integrity.
Essentially, TLS is an upgraded and hardened version of SSL, designed to address the vulnerabilities discovered in its predecessor and meet the demands of the modern internet.
Terminology You’ll Still See
If SSL is outdated, why do we still talk about “SSL certificates” The term “SSL certificate” became so embedded in industry language that it has persisted. Today, when organizations buy or deploy a SSL certificate today, they are actually getting a certificate that uses the modern TLS protocol. The name SSL certificate because of history and recognition, but the protection behind the padlock icon in today’s browsers is powered by TLS.
How SSL/TLS Works in Practice
Establishing a secure connection happens in a fraction of a second through a carefully choreographed sequence of events. This process ensures both parties are who they say they are and agree on the methods for encryption before any sensitive data is exchanged.
The SSL/TLS Handshake
The SSL/TLS handshake is a multi-step negotiation between a web browser (the client) and the website’s server:
- Client Hello: The browser initiates the connection by sending a “hello” message that lists the TLS versions and cipher suites it supports.
- Server Hello: The server responds with its own “hello,” selecting the strongest protocol and cipher suite that both it and the browser support.
- Certificate Exchange: The server sends its SSL/TLS certificate. The browser checks it against trusted CAs to confirm it’s valid and hasn’t expired.
- Key Exchange and Session Key Generation: Once the certificate is verified, the browser uses the server’s public key to securely generate and exchange a symmetric session key. This temporary key is used to encrypt all data for the remainder of the session, as it is more computationally efficient than using the public/private key pair for everything.
Cipher Suites and Encryption
A cipher suite is a set of algorithms that a secure connection uses to protect information. It dictates the key exchange method, the bulk encryption algorithm, and the message authentication code. Modern web browsers are programmed to reject connections that try to use outdated or weak cipher suites, effectively forcing websites to maintain high security standards. If a browser and server can’t agree on a secure cipher suite, the connection will fail.
Message Authentication and Alerts
To ensure data integrity, SSL/TLS uses Message Authentication Codes (MACs). A MAC is like a digital signature for each message sent, allowing the recipient to verify that the message hasn’t been altered in transit. If any part of the handshake fails or data appears corrupted, the protocol sends specific alert messages to terminate the connection, preventing any potential security breach.
Why Are SSL/TLS Certificates Important?
Beyond the technical function of encryption, digital certificates are crucial for building trust, brand protection, and meeting compliance standards. Establishing a secure online presence is no longer optional; it’s a baseline expectation for users and a regulatory requirement for organizations.
For end users, the padlock icon and HTTPS prefix provide instant assurance that their connection is private and data is protected from interception. In a large-scale survey of over 1,800 users, 74% said they would proceed with a purchase when they saw the padlock icon. That figure drops to 50% when the padlock is removed, illustrating how much user behavior depends on visible trust signals.
For businesses, the stake (and the benefits) are even higher:
- Trust and Credibility: A secure site shows customers you value their privacy and security, which is critical for conversion rates.
- Brand Protection: SSL/TLS helps prevent attackers from impersonating your site to phish for user information. However, it’s important to note that even phishing sites can use basic certificates to appear legitimate.
- Compliance: Regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS require the protection of sensitive user data, making SSL/TLS a mandatory component of compliance.
- SEO Rankings: Google and other search engines use HTTPS as a positive ranking signal, with 95% of Google’s not search results being secured with HTTPs. This gives secure websites a slight advantage in search results.
Best Practices for Managing SSL/TLS Certificates
For any organization, from a small business to a large enterprise, managing SSL certificates is a critical operational task. An expired certificate can take your website offline, erode customer trust, and result in lost revenue. Effective certificate lifecycle management involves automation, visibility, and a clear strategy for security and compliance.
Automating Certificate Management
Manual certificate management is prone to human error and simply doesn’t scale. Automation is key to ensuring certificates are correctly deployed, renewed, and revoked.
- Discovery: Automatically scan your networks to find all existing certificates, including those that may have been deployed without IT oversight.
- Renewal: Implement automated renewal processes to prevent unexpected expirations. This ensures services remain online and secure without manual intervention.
- Revocation: In the event a certificate’s private key is compromised, automated systems can quickly revoke the certificate to mitigate security risks.
Centralizing Visibility and Control
A lack of visibility into your certificate inventory is a major risk. A centralized platform provides a single source of truth, allowing you to monitor expiration dates, validation levels, and issuing CAs. This visibility prevents outages from expired certificates and ensures that all certificates comply with corporate security policies. This control is often tied to your DNS and network security infrastructure, providing a unified view of your digital footprint.
Security and Compliance at Scale
For large enterprises, governments, and financial institutions, managing thousands of certificates is a monumental task. A robust management platform provides continuous monitoring and reporting to align with best practices and regulatory requirements. This includes enforcing policies on key lengths, cryptographic algorithms, and the types of certificates used, such as requiring Extended Validation (EV) certificates for public-facing financial applications.
Use a DNS Service Provider
Since TLS/SSL certificates are now limited to shorter lifespans, organizations need faster, more reliable ways to validate and renew them. DNS plays a critical role in streamlining this process.
- Quick Validation: DNS records accelerate Domain Control Validation (DCV), enabling faster certificate issuance and seamless renewals.
- Automation: Automated systems leverage DNS data to verify domain ownership without manual intervention, reducing the risk of oversight and human error.
- Operational Efficiency: Keeping DNS records current ensures certificates are reissued and installed on time, preventing outages caused by expired credentials.
- Security & Trust: Faster validation and timely renewals limit exposure to compromised certificates, strengthening user confidence in your brand.
Partnering with an enterprise-grade DNS service provider ensures these validations and renewals happen quickly, securely, and at global scale. This makes DNS not just the backbone of website availability, but also a cornerstone of effective certificate lifecycle management.
Strengthen Your Security with UltraDNS
SSL/TLS certificates are only as reliable as the infrastructure that supports them. From certificate issuance and validation to global availability and resilience, DNS ensures secure connections don’t just work; but work everywhere, at scale.
By pairing effective certificate management with a trusted DNS service provider, you gain faster validations, reduced risk of outages, and stronger protection against threats targeting the foundation of secure communication.
Explore UltraDNS to see how enterprise-grade authoritative DNS helps organizations streamline SSL/TLS lifecycle management while delivering the performance and resilience today’s internet demands.
