SSL certificates keep online interactions private even though they travel across the public Internet, and they help customers gain the confidence to provide personal information on your website. If you ask users of your website to sign in, enter personal data such as credit card numbers, or view confidential information such as health benefits or financial accounts, you need to keep the data private. You also need to assure them that your website is authentic.

SSL is also used for email servers, web-based applications, server-to-server communications and more.

1. Generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for the web server you plan to secure. If you do not manage your own web server, contact your web host or Internet service provider to request a CSR.
2. Select an SSL Certificate and click buy.
3. All necessary information will be delivered to your e-mail.
4. Follow installation instructions for your Web server.
5. Download Site Seal to display on pages within your secured domain.

DV (Domain Validation), OV (Organization Validation), and EV (Extended Validation) certificates represent hierarchical levels of verification for SSL/TLS digital certificates, differing in the scope of the audit performed by the Certification Authority (CA). A DV certificate provides basic validation limited to confirming domain ownership through mechanisms such as email verification, DNS/TXT records, or file placement on the server. It does not include identity verification of the entity, making it suitable for low-risk websites. OV introduces an additional verification layer, requiring analysis of the organization’s legal documents (e.g., business registry, tax ID), confirmation of its physical presence, and validation of data against public records. This results in the verified company name being displayed in the certificate details, enhancing user trust. EV represents the highest level of security, covering financial, legal, and operational audits of the entity, verification of the applicant’s authority, and detailed inspection of the organizational structure. It enables the full legal name of the organization to be activated in browsers, minimizing phishing risks and boosting brand credibility. Each type of certificate uses the same encryption standards (e.g., AES-256) but differs in the level of trust derived from the validation process, which determines their use – from blogs (DV) to corporate websites (OV) and transactional platforms or financial institutions (EV).

A CSR (Certificate Signing Request) is a structured text file in PEM or DER format, generated on a server, that contains a public key along with entity metadata (e.g., domain name, organization details, location). It serves as a formal request for an SSL/TLS certificate to be issued by a Certification Authority (CA). The process of creating a CSR includes generating a pair of cryptographic keys (public and private), where the private key remains securely stored on the server, while the public key is embedded in the CSR together with identification data in the Subject field (CN – Common Name, O – Organization, C – Country). The CA verifies the authenticity of the data in the CSR during the validation process (DV/OV/EV) and signs it with its private key, creating the final certificate that confirms the ownership and identity of the entity. CSR integrity is digitally protected through a hash (e.g., SHA-256) signed with the server’s private key, ensuring that the request has not been modified during transmission. The CSR is a key element of the trust chain, enabling the binding of a certificate to a specific server and cryptographic infrastructure, while enforcing compliance with X.509 standards and CA security policies.