Secure websites are necessary to protect users when their private informaiton and/or money is involved.  Secure websites provide users with 3 primary benefits:

1) A Certificate Authority, such as Verisign or GoDaddy, verifies the identity of the certificate owner when it is issued.  You can view the certificate from your website browser when connected to the site, and know who you are dealing with.

2) Each SSL Certificate contains unique, authenticated information about the certificate owner, so you can have a high degree of confidence that you are dealing with a business or person posing as themselves, as opposed to a potentially criminal posing as a business or person who they are not.

3) An SSL Certificate enables encryption of sensitive information during online transactions.  Any personal informaition you provide to the website is encrypted before being sent across the Internet.  Only the server where the secure website recides possesses the key necessary to decript the information you have provided.

How do you know you are dealing with a secure website?

Secure websites URL website addresses start with "https://" instead of the usual "http://".  You will see a Padlock icon to the right of the URL address at the top of your browser.  You can click on the Padlock icon and view the SSL Certificate.  At this point, your browser already has the "public" key it needs to encript any information you send from this site.

Secure websites are very common;  if you buy anything online, your Shopping Cart or at least the Checkout page should be on a secure site.   For an example close to home, check out our Pay by Credit Card page on this website.