SSL Certificate Types

SSL / EV Certificates

Certification authorities offer wide ranges of SSL certificates in response to the variety of services that need to be secured and authenticated. Server, developer, client and even customized certificates are available. The most popular certificate type is server certificates, which protect your company or e-commerce website.

DIFFERENT SSL CERTIFICATES

SERVER CERTIFICATES

Server certificates are issued by the following authorities: Thawte, TBS X509, Symantec, Geotrust, Comodo, GlobalSign and Certigna.

Server certificates enable a website owner to be identified, and establish encrypted transactions between internet users and the site.

When you visit the website of a well-known brand, you have no way of knowing if it actually belongs to that brand. The site could have been hijacked.

Server certificates help to resolve this issue. Delivered by trusted authorities and using high levels of authentication, they guarantee that checks have been carried out to confirm that the organization exists, is legal, is the rightful owner of the website name and is the only party to hold the certificate.

These checks are certified on the date on which the certificate is issued, and the certification authority is therefore liable for them.

This is why a certificate with strong authentication is crucial to establishing a trust environment for remote transactions.

DEVELOPER CERTIFICATES

Developer certificates are issued by the following authorities: Thawte and Symantec.

They are aimed exclusively at professionals, to identify the creator of a program to internet users when the program is launched.

Their features include guaranteeing the integrity and authorship of your codes, applying an electronic signature to content, and providing internet users with information on the publisher of the software that they are downloading.

As well as increasing internet users’ trust, developer certificates allow application developers to ensure that their code cannot be tampered with, changed or compromised.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS FOR A SSL CERTIFICATE : AUTHENTICATION & ENCRYPTION

Authentification sécurisée via certificat SSL

Encryption and authentication are the two essential functions performed by an SSL certificate. The data exchanged via the internet (between your server and an online computer) is encrypted using a cryptographic algorithm. The authentication function identifies the website owner.

Some SSL certificates are open to all, and no audit of the owner’s existence is performed. These types of certificate therefore display the security padlock, but do not offer any security guarantees. Such certificates are sometimes installed on phishing sites to trick internet users.

It is therefore crucial that you choose a high level of authentication for your certificate. This will encourage your clients to trust you, and enable you to prevent fraud (including phishing, pharming and DNS spoofing).

The SSL certificates offered by SafeBrands have two main advantages: Firstly, security certificates ensure that financial transactions and private, confidential and technical communications via your website are encrypted. Therefore confidential information is not left to circulate ‘freely’ on the internet.

The second advantage is that SSL security certificates guarantee the identity of the website owner. Therefore, internet users can be sure that they are on an ‘official’ site rather than a ‘counterfeit’ site.

One-factor authentication

These certificates do not provide any guarantees and are therefore not in our catalogue.

The only check made is the contact’s address.

Two-factor authentication

The company’s identity is verified along with the domain name ownership.

Three-factor authentication

These certificates have a medium level of security and involve a more thorough audit. The existence of the website and company is verified.

Six-factor authentication

Extended Validation certificates are the safest on the market.

A full audit is performed of the existence of the company, website, website ownership (Whois) etc.

Three-factor validation is the minimum requirement to be ‘trusted’

The table below clarifies the audit procedures performed by the certification authorities, and above all enables you to gauge the security level that our minimum three-factor validated solutions provide according to their authentication factors.

POINTS TO CHECK	ONE-FACTOR	TWO-FACTOR	THREE-FACTOR	EV
List of sites that have been targeted by phishing	no	no	no (yes for Thawte SuperCert)	yes
List of banned sites	no	no	no	yes
Existence (registration) of the organization	no	no	yes, via a qualified database	yes
Trade name (optional)	no	yes	yes, via a qualified database	yes, via a qualified government database
Physical existence (address)	no	no	no	yes, via a qualified independent database
Physical existence (telephone)	no	no	yes, via a directory or qualified database	yes, via a directory or qualified independent database
Operational existence (over 3 years)	no	no	no	yes
Domain check	yes (just by e-mail)	yes, with a proxy	yes, with a proxy	yes, the document of title must be in the name of the organization
Verification of the administrative contact’s role	no	no	no	yes
Verification that a subscription agreement has been signed (received by post, fax or PDF)	no	no	no	yes
Telephone validation of the request	no	no	yes	yes
Inclusion of the organization’s registration information in the certificate	no	no	no	yes

Direct access to our pricing grids by authority and certification type

For direct access to our selection of SSL certificates and to order your product online:

Standard certificate
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EV certificate
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UCC certificate
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Wildcard certificate
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