SSL Certificate has become a must-have thing for every website today for several reasons, like data encryption, green padlock icon to gain user trust, improved SEO, etc.
However, the website owners aren’t aware of what kind of security an SSL Certificate provides and what it doesn’t.
For instance, it can encrypt data flowing between a web browser and web server, but can it protect the data stored on the webserver?
What is an SSL Certificate?
SSL or the Secure Sockets Layer is a security protocol to encrypt and secure the communication between a web browser and a web server. The tool or service required to create this encrypted and secure communication is called an SSL Certificate.
Source: Freepik
What can an SSL Certificate do?
Following are the main things that an SSL Certificate can do for your business website:
- Encrypt information flowing between the web server and browser
- Let people know that your site is reliable
- Improve SEO
- Provide authentication
If you are using an SSL Certificate on your site, your URL in the address bar will start with HTTPS, rather than HTTP.
What SSL Certificates can’t do?
While SSL is great for encrypting the sensitive information transmitting between the browser and web server, it cannot protect the information once it gets stored on the server. Its role is limited to protecting the information only until it’s in transit between the user’s browser and your server.
For example, when a customer is purchasing something from your website, he’ll submit the banking or credit card details and process the payment. From the instance he clicks on Submit till those details reach your server, the SSL certificate will do its job of encrypting the information. After reaching the server, the information gets decrypted to complete the transaction.
Now it depends on the level of the security of your server how it protects the information from that point.
So, what your SSL certificate cannot do is:
- Protect the information on server
- Protect the server data from cyberattacks
I hope the whole concept is clearer to you now.
What kind of cyberattacks can occur on your web server?
Your website is hosted on a web server that runs on an operating system like Windows or Linux. The server is linked to the database and runs most of your applications.
Any vulnerability found in your database, applications, network, or operating system may result in a cyberattack on your server.
Following are the common cyberattacks that can occur on your server:
- DoS (Denial of Service) attack
- Website defacement
- Ransomware attack
- Phishing attack
- Misconfiguration attack
- Directory traversal
Source: Freepik
How to get 360-degree data protection?
To get complete protection against all kinds of cyberattacks, you need both an SSL certificate and a cloud backup solution like Acronis Backup Cloud.
- SSL certificate
If you are already using an SSL certificate, it’s great!
But if you are still not using it, it’s time for you to get one today. Without SSL, people don’t trust your site and don’t think of purchasing anything online from you. It results in loss of revenue.
Google has mandated that all the websites use SSL, or it will negatively impact SEO. You can’t beat your competitors on Google search rankings if you are still running a non-SSL protected website.
Moreover, you are at the risk of your site getting hacked by even amateur hackers. So, think no further and buy an SSL certificate today.
- Acronis Cloud Backup
Acronis Cloud Backup is the fastest and most up to date cloud data protection solution for businesses. It is a one-stop cloud backup solution for small and medium businesses (SMBs), as well as large enterprises.
It provides centralized data protection while taking care of file sync and share, monitoring, notary, and archiving.
It is the best cloud backup solution that backs up your business data to the cloud and helps you to avoid data loss in cases of disasters.
Here are the key features of Acronis Cloud Backup:
- Built-in anti-ransomware solution: Powered by advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies, it can scan systems in real-time and protect from the rising ransomware attacks.
- Notifications: In case any attack occurs, Acronis will notify you at the earliest and restore the affected files automatically.
- Hybrid cloud backup: Acronis can be used to protect virtual, hybrid, and physical sites on the desktop. It is also compatible with mobile devices so that you can back up your all devices quickly.
- Fast backup: Acronis uses Tier-IV, SSAE-16 certified data centers, allowing you to recover or access data from the Acronis Backup Cloud in seconds.
- Simple management and control: The solution comes with an easy-to-use management and control panel, enabling the generation of reports for cloud backups, setting up of auto-agent update, as well as controlling the backups, infrastructure, cloud, and data.
- Cloud protection: Acronis supports the leading cloud platforms including Microsoft Azure and Amazon EC2, so that you can store cloud data in Acronis Cloud and manage it with safe cloud transitions.
