TLS certificate
For a website or application to use TLS, it must have a TLS certificate installed on its origin server (the certificate is also known as an “SSL certificate” because of the naming confusion described above). A TLS certificate is issued by a certificate authority to the person or business that owns a domain. The certificate contains important information about who owns the domain, along with the server’s public key, both of which are important for validating the server’s identity.
An SSL certificate is a file installed on a website’s origin server. It’s simply a data file containing the public key and the identity of the website owner, along with other information. Without an SSL certificate, a website’s traffic can’t be encrypted with TLS.
Technically, any website owner can create their own SSL certificate, and such certificates are called self-signed certificates. However, browsers do not consider self-signed certificates to be as trustworthy as SSL certificates issued by a certificate authority.
Website owners need to obtain an SSL certificate from a certificate authority, and then install it on their web server (often a web host can handle this process). A certificate authority is an outside party who can confirm that the website owner is who they say they are. They keep a copy of the certificates they issue.
The S in “HTTPS” stands for “secure.” HTTPS is just HTTP with SSL/TLS. A website with an HTTPS address has a legitimate SSL certificate issued by a certificate authority, and traffic to and from that website is authenticated and encrypted with the SSL/TLS protocol.
To encourage the Internet as a whole to move to the more secure HTTPS, many web browsers have started to mark HTTP websites as “not secure” or “unsafe.” Thus, not only is HTTPS essential for keeping users safe and user data secure, it has also become essential for building trust with users.
References
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