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SSL sertificate is an electronic document that gives a website the ability to communicate securely with its web customers. Without a certificate, any information sent to a website can be intercepted and viewed by anyone. SSL sertificate is used to identify the merchant using it and to encrypt the credit card, and other sensitive, data. SSL certificates are necessary to use SSL protocol on the server. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a cryptographic protocol which provide secure communications on the Internet. SSL provides endpoint authentication and communications privacy over the Internet using cryptography. In typical use, only the server is authenticated (i.e. its identity is ensured) while the client remains unauthenticated; mutual authentication requires public key infrastructure (or PKI) deployment to clients. The protocol allow client/server applications to communicate in a way designed to prevent eavesdropping, tampering, and message forgery. SSL runs on layers beneath application protocols such as HTTP, SMTP and NNTP and above the TCP transport protocol, which forms part of the TCP/IP protocol suite. While it can add security to any protocol that uses reliable connections (such as TCP), it is most commonly used with HTTP to form HTTPS. HTTPS is used to secure World Wide Web pages for applications such as electronic commerce. It uses public key certificates to verify the identity of endpoints. While an increasing number of client and server products can support SSL natively, many still do not. In these cases, a user may wish to use standalone SSL products like Stunnel to provide encryption. However, the Internet Engineering Task Force recommended in 1997 that application protocols offer a way to upgrade to TLS from a plaintext connection, rather than use a separate port for encrypted communications - this prevents use of wrappers such as Stunnel. SSL can also be used to tunnel an entire network stack to create a VPN, as is the case with OpenVPN. Order now 
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