Secure Server Hosting (SSL) provides a safe environment where your customers can make purchases from your website in the knowledge the details they enter are secure.
 
If you want to provide online shopping facilities for your customers you need SSL. Our secure servers utilise the latest encryption methods. The reassuring golden padlock in the browser and the website name being preceded by https// show them that transactions are completely safe. Professional web hosting - website hosting throughout the UK - provided by GCW.
  
Through SSL encryption, the Thawte certification assures that information is kept private between your web server and your clients' web browsers.
 
Alternatively, if you prefer to use your own SSL certificate we can set this up for you on one of our servers or on your own dedicated server.
  
SSL Definition
(pronounced as separate letters) SSL is Short for Secure Sockets Layer, a protocol developed by for transmitting private documents via the Internet. SSL uses a cryptographic system that uses two keys to encrypt data − a public key known to everyone and a private or secret key known only to the recipient of the message. The internet browsers eg Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer support SSL, and many Websites use the protocol to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers. By convention, URLs that require an SSL connection start with https: instead of http: SSL creates a secure connection between a client and a server. Since its introduction in 1994, SSL has been the standard for e-commerce transaction security, and it's likely to remain so well into the future. SSL is all about encryption.
 
Normally, any text(such as your credit card number) sent from your browser to the web server is sent as plain text. This means that a hacker could potentially intercept (however unlikely) the information sent from your browser and read it. By using the secure server, the information is encrypted before it is sent from your browser.
 
SSL encrypts data, like credit cards numbers (as well other personally identifiable information), which prevents anyone from stealing your information for malicious intent. You know that you're on an SSL protected page when the address begins with "https" and there is a padlock icon at the bottom of the page.
 
Your browser encrypts the data and sends to the receiving Website using either 40-bit or 128-bit encryption.
 
SSL Certificates
At the other end of the equation, and of greatest importance to e-commerce site builders, is the SSL certificate. The SSL certificate sits on a secure server and is used to encrypt the data and to identify the Web site. The SSL certificate gives information as to who it belongs to and contains information about the certificate holder, the domain that the certificate was issued to, the name of the Certificate Authority who issued the certificate, the root and the country it was issued in. You can be certain of secure ecommerce transactions when using our SSL Certificate. The security of your information and transactions is assured.  

HOW DOES A SECURE SERVER ASSIST ME?
Operating a secure server (SSL) allows you to conduct e-commerce or other sensitive exchanges of data with your visitors in a way that will make them feel more comfortable doing business with you. To save you the time, money and the hassle of registering your own secure certificates we have registered a SSL certificate which can be utilised on your website. The Secure SErver License builds consumer trust and confidence.


Why Validation is Necessary?
Today, online commerce is worth an estimated billions of pounds and continues to grow at a substantial rate. Every time an e-commerce transaction is conducted on the Internet, personal confidential data like credit card numbers are exchanged among the shopper, the merchant and the appropriate parties involved in the transaction process like a payment processor. This information is susceptible to interception by unauthorized third parties and malicious attacks by computer hackers.
 
One of the key success factors for e-commerce has been the implementation of the security technology SSL which is is the transaction security protocol used by hundreds of thousands of websites to protect online commerce. Our Internet economy has come to depend on SSL. Many internet shoppers will not make purchases at websites that lack the level of security expected from e-commerce sites today.