Your Computer Network Solution
Protect Your Passwords with SSL
When you think of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) security, do you think of e-commerce? We all have seen the lock icon on your browser when you are clicking on that buy button or when entering your credit card information.
Well, don't stop there: SSL technology can provide benefits beyond protecting financial data - benefits we all can take advantage of.
SSL security is a process of encrypting data transmitted between two systems over a non-secure medium such as the internet. Through the use of a public/private key algorithm, data can be encrypted and decrypted transparently. This means that anyone intercepting your keystrokes (think credit card numbers) will see nothing but apparent gibberish. All of this is done automatically in the background without any extra effort by the end-user.
So where else besides e-commerce applications can we utilize secure data encryption? How about every application that touches the Internet?
How many of us use Windows mobile devices to access our e-mail? How many of us use Outlook Web Access while traveling? Unless you are using an SSL enabled connection, passwords are transmitted across the Internet in open text.
The good news is that with Microsoft Windows Servers, SSL security is relatively easy to implement and is inexpensive. You need to purchase an SSL certificate from a Certificate Authority. Certificates are valid for a specific period of time, generally 1-5 years.
Once you have the certificate, it is installed on the Internet Information Server through an administrative procedure. Your firewall will then need to be configured to route the secure ports to the web server. Once this has been completed, you will access Outlook via an HTTPS connection, and the ports for the non-secure connections can be closed.
That’s one step towards securing your network against the bad guys.
For more information or help with securing your network with SSL, please give Chris Faist, Integrated Computer Systems Support a call at 425-284-5410.
