Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Luc Hullegie, Managing Director at The SSL Store EMEA:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to The SSL Store?
A: The SSL Store™, the world’s leading provider of SSL/TLS security certificates, public key infrastructure (PKI) and website security solutions, is an upper-echelon Platinum Partner of the world’s leading Certificate Authorities, or what are known as CAs. W¬¬¬e’ve been around for a while — since 2008 — and have more than 80 talented, focused, and knowledgeable employees working at offices on four continents.
We’re a far-reaching company with a lot to offer customers and resellers alike. With our 24/7/365 support and technology, we serve more than 150,000 customers across virtually all industries with a variety of the world’s most popular digital security certificates, managed PKI solutions and certificate management solutions from Sectigo (formerly Comodo CA) and DigiCert (formerly Symantec). We also serve a reseller network of more than 12,000 partners spanning 120 countries.
Q: Can you give us insights into your products?
A: Certainly! At The SSL Store™, we sell a variety of digital security solutions for SMBs and large enterprises alike. We offer multiple types of SSL, email, and code signing certificates, as well as certificate management, website security, and enterprise solutions. We’re also continuously seeking ways to grow and expand into new areas of cyber security. Here’s a taste of some of the solutions we offer:
• SSL/TLS certificates are used to facilitate the protocol to make websites safer for companies and users alike by creating a secure, encrypted connection along with web server and identity authentication.
• Email signing certificates digitally sign messages and authenticate email senders, which can help eliminate spoofing and reduce the likelihood of successful phishing attacks.
• Code signing certificates enable developers to digitally sign their software, which helps to increase security and trust. We offer code signing certificates from leading CAs such as Sectigo, Comodo CA, Thawte, DigiCert and Symantec.
• Certificate management can be a challenge when you’re trying to manage a few dozen or even hundreds of security certificates. This task is exceptionally important because expired certificates leave your websites, applications and network vulnerable and also open you up to a plethora of noncompliance fines. Some of our certificate management solutions include Sectigo Certificate Manager, DigiCert CertCentral® and Symantec MPKI.
• cWatch Web is our all-in-one managed Security-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution through Comodo Cybersecurity. cWatch Web is a cloud-based solution that makes enterprise-level website security affordable to SMBs. This solution protects their businesses online by providing multi-layered security combined with the 24/7/365 dedicated service of experienced IT security experts.
• HackerGuardian PCI Scan is a solution that makes compliance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards easy. This tool scans your external-facing IPs and generate daily reports that indicates any vulnerabilities and provides you with information about how to address them.
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Q: What is SSL/TLS and why is it important for every website?
A: SSL/TLS, which stands for secure sockets layer/transport layer security, refers to types of digital security certificates that enable websites to facilitate greater security. No one wants their information to be accessed by hackers. What SSL does is protect personally identifiable information (PII) and financial data from being “read” by eavesdroppers and other malicious users by creating a secure, encrypted connection.
SSL has three validation levels:
• Domain validation (DV), or what we consider Basic SSL.
• Organization validation (OV), or what we call Business SSL; and
• Extended validation (EV), or what we refer to as Premium SSL.
The first is when a certificate authority (such as Sectigo or Symantec/DigiCert) verifies that the domain is in the control of the individual who requests the certificate. The second provides the same domain validation but the CA takes it a step further by also providing basic verification of the organization to ensure that the organization is who they claim to be. The third, which is the most secure type of certificate on the market, is the most rigorous level of validation. It is a longer process that requires businesses to meet a heavier burden of proof to validate their identity. It also unlocks all visible security indicators within browsers to maximize user trust and confidence in the authenticity of a website.
In addition to increasing website security, every SSL/TLS certificate we sell comes with a complimentary site seal from the corresponding trusted certificate authority and a warranty to protect the organization in the unlikely event that the encryption somehow fails. All of these things together help SSL to enhance consumer trust in your website. An additional bonus is that having an HTTPS-enabled site can also help boost your site’s rankings on search engines like Google. Their search algorithm values secure websites over unsecure websites and punishes sites that lack that security measure.
Q: How does an SSL/TLS Certificate actually work?
A: When users transmit information over the internet on an unsecure website, they’re often unaware that they’re sending plaintext data that can be accessed by hackers who can then use the information however they choose. As we all know, though, not all hackers have people’s best interests in mind, which means this information may be used for personal, financial, or political gain. However, when users transmit information on a website that has enabled a protected transfer protocol — when they see “HTTPS” in the web address bar — it means that the information is instead transmitted through a secure, encrypted channel. This is where SSL/TLS can help.
Once installed on a site’s server, SSL/TLS triggers a multi-step process known as an “SSL/TLS handshake.” This is essentially a two-way conversation between the end user’s browser and the server that results in the creation of a secure, encrypted communication channel between them. A great way to understand this connection is to think of it in terms of talking on the telephone via secure and unsecured phone lines. Without SSL, you’re speaking plainly over an unsecure or unencrypted connection. With SSL in place, you’re still able to speak normally, but it’s instead over an encrypted connection. What this means is that the information you share is garbled and sounds nonsensical to anyone outside the encrypted connection.
Q: What makes you stand out from your competition?
A: I’m proud to say that we’re the largest Platinum Partner specialist of Sectigo and DigiCert — the largest and most-trusted commercial CAs in the world. In addition to selling high-quality cyber security and digital signing certificates for more than 10 years, we’ve also put a lot of time, love, and energy into building relationships with our CA partners. This uniquely positions us to leverage our executive-level access and buying power to deliver a truly customer-centric approach to our work — not to mention incomparable cost-savings and flexibility to our customers and resellers.
We employ some of the industry’s best and most knowledgeable customer support experts to provide an incredible experience for our customers. Our team members believe in collaboration and shared success; we hold ourselves to the highest standards and are individually accountable for everything we do. No one likes lousy customer service — this is why we like to bring a personal touch to our work. We take the time to get to know our customers and will do everything within our power to ensure every customer interaction is a great experience for them.
Recommended: Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: At The SSL Store™, our goal is pretty straightforward: to make the web more secure by enabling secure, compliant, trusted connections and authentic relationships. We plan to do this in several ways:
• By continuing to develop deeper relationships with leading certificate authorities;
• By creating new partnerships with industry vendors;
• By adding more and better products that help organizations stay compliant with industry and regulatory requirements and standards;
• By continuing to provide access to the knowledgeable and talented customer service professionals;
• By creating new integrations with new and existing industry platforms;
• By not limiting ourselves to committing to just one thing and allowing ourselves to expand through new cyber security solutions;
• By continually expanding and growing — which we’re doing at an average rate of 20% per year!
