Related Tag Articles: ssl

What is an SSL Certificate?

17 September 2012

When the average Internet user visits a website, there’s a lot of information being exchanged between the computer or device and the web host. These transactions can unfortunately be breached—and quite easily—and thus hacking and identify theft are always major issues to contend with online for any frequent net user or businessperson. Knowing which sites to trust and letting users know that you can be trusted may all boil down to an SSL Certificate.

Although you may have seen sites displaying an SSL Certificate, and although you may have a general idea that it is security-based, few people actually realize what’s at the root of this feature. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and like its predecessor, Transport Layer Security (TLS), an SSL is a cryptographic protocol providing tight security during data exchanges.

Using symmetric encrypting for confidentiality and asymmetric cryptography for the key exchange, an SSL essentially encrypts information by scrambling various segments of a network connection at two key points – the Transport layer and the Application layer. The method is so effective that email, faxing, IMs, VoIP and many other communications online are protected by SSL protocols.

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How to Use WHOIS to Learn about Your Competition

11 April 2012

As you will learn when building and promoting a website, the internet is extremely competitive. In fact, the World Wide Web is probably the most competitive industry in the history of mankind. And it’s not because big companies spend big money; to the contrary, it’s more the fact that anyone can start up a website with little capital and use common sense methods to market within their respective niche.

This means that the internet is also a cutthroat place, where some pry, lie, steal and cheat in order to get ahead. At the very least, you will have to put on your detective hat to do a lot of research on the competition if you hope to succeed in your chosen marketplace.

To research your competitors out there, WHOIS is undoubtedly the strongest resource you have at your disposal. WHOIS is a free-to-use database that catalogs every single legally registered domain in the world. By searching for a domain via this directory, you can learn a lot of details about the site. Needless to say, this information can be vital to your own campaign; learning details about your competition can help you propel past them

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