Introduction
What is an SSL certificate, Why do websites need this certificate, and are your push messages encrypted? Let us find answers to all these questions and how they affect providing an effective push notification service for the users.
Security is a tricky issue on the internet that must be taken utmost care of. It is the primary thing to think about while starting an online service or implementing a new feature. SSL certificate encrypts anything you send across the internet and secures your information.
What is an SSL Certificate?
SSL is one of the most preferred security certificates on the internet. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) uses symmetric cryptography for encrypting data between a web browser and a web server. Many websites use this to decrease the risk of data theft by hackers. The SSL certificate serves two main functions.
- Authenticating the website identity
- encrypting the data transmitted
In a simple way, when two computers connect they share a cryptographic code for secure information exchange. So, when a third party interferes with the communication they see an encrypted code. This encryption makes the job of hackers tough. So, you can send any information securely using channels like push notifications. You can identify SSL certified websites by observing “https:// at the starting of the URL.
Visitors can check the SSL certificate at the website address bar. Tap on the padlock icon next to the URL and visit the security section to check the certificate. Moreover, this certificate is helpful for your SEO rankings. As per the Google update, HTTPS can act as the tiebreaker in search engine rankings when all other metrics are the same.
Why Do You Need an SSL Certificate for Push Notifications?
You may have an uncertainty of why SSL is important for your websites to send push notifications about some coupons or updates? But the security is more for the pathway along with information. You connect with users’ devices through web servers. This creates more chances of middlemen(hackers)interfering.
There are cases where hackers interfere and push false notifications to your users.
For instance, the push notification service of New York Post was hacked and used to push irrelevant messages. The website has ended up apologizing to its millions of users on social media platforms for the inconvenience.
The middle man can send any sort of information to your users after breaching your security levels. This kind of activity can damage your reputation, customer relations, and long apologies. Also, you should work so hard to gain lost engagement and users’ trust in your push notifications. So, to avoid all these issues we should get an SSL certificate that protects both visitors and your site and send secure push notifications.
How Does SSL Certificate Work?
SSL ensures that any data sent between users and websites are secured between systems. Let us see how the SSL certificate works for push notifications to protect your information.
- Browser (user device browsers) attempts to connect with a web server and requests it to identify itself.
- The web server sends the copy of the SSL certificate to the browser or user device.
- Now, the browser checks the security certificate. It sends a message to the server if it’s accurate.
- The web server sends a digitally signed certificate to start the encryption process.
- Encrypted data is shared between the browser and web server.
How to Get an SSL Certificate?
Internet becomes a safer place if all the websites start using SSL certificates. This SSL security is a certificate provided by the Certificate Authority (CA) organizations for the domains. These are trustworthy third-party organizations that verify websites. The Certificate Authority will digitally sign your certificate with a private key, allowing user device browsers to verify.
The domain owners can install and activate this certificate on the website origin server. Once the setup completes, the website loads with HTTPS, and all data is encrypted and secured. Most of the CA organizations provide free SSL certificates to reduce the additional cost burden on the websites.
Truepush recommends you get SSL security encryption for data transmissions. Must for push notification campaigns, bill transactions, user details, and more. We with a free push notification provider have certified SSL encryption to handle things secured and smooth. For an effective and secured push notifications service, sign up with Truepush today!
