What's the difference with SSL Certificates?

Question

Hi,
I need to get an SSL Certificate for my client's online
store. There are so
many choices out there ranging from stupidly expensive, down
to suspiciously
cheap.
Can anyone help me sort through the mob and recommend
something that is
trustworthy, secure and cheap.
I'm happy to buy globally, but I'd prefer either a true
multi-national, or
an Australian company.
Thanks,
B

Answer 1

Which certificate you choose depends on your intended use for
the cert. The cheap ones (US $20/year and up) simply assure that
you control the domain in question. The certificate agency sends an
email to the administrative contact specified in the domain's Whois
listing. If they get the appropriate response, the certificate is
issued. If all you are out to do is establish SSL connections to a
web site to prevent eavesdropping, this type of certificate is
fine. There is no difference in the level of security between these
certificates and fancier offerings as long as both the cert and
your web server support 256 bit encryption. You can also get a
certificate that is valid for up to 10 years, so you won't have to
worry about SSL for a long time. The cheap certificates are not
recommended for online commerce, as there is no assurance you are
an actual company. If you go this route, getting a certificate from
an outfit that supports single root verification greatly eases
installation on your server. (Translation from geek: A single root
certificate is inherently trusted by all major browsers. Companies
such as RapidSSL (cheap), Geotrust and Thawte (not so cheap), and
Verisign (expensive) all own their root certificates. Many other
certificate agencies require installing a chain of certificates on
your server that point back to the trusted root certificate. Use
Firefox to test your SSL site, as it has the most comprehensive
certificate validation routines.)
The next step up are the high assurance certificates. These
require you to prove that you own or represent the company whose
domain you are getting a certificate for. The price for these
certificates ranges from US$100/year to ~$400. The certificate
company will perform a search on your business or organization, and
you may be required to submit supporting documentation to prove you
are who you claim to be. The more expensive flavors of these certs
usually offer larger guarantees against credit card fraud resulting
from certificate misuse. These certificates are valid for up to 3
years.
Finally, there are the new extended validation certificates.
These require an in-depth evaluation of your business, including an
investigation into the overall legitimacy of your corporation.
Government agencies also qualify. Sole proprietorships and and
general partnerships are not eligible, although the CA/B says they
may be in the future. Get one of these and IE users can see the
navigation bar turn a trustworthy green color. There is also a
large amount of green involved in purchasing one of these
certificates, ranging from US$500/year from the cheapie outfits to
$900/year from Thawte to $1500 per year from Verisign.
No matter which option you pursue, there are a couple of
points to be aware of. First, choose a vendor that offers free
certificate replacement. This protects you in case a change in
hosting provider or web server invalidates your existing
certificate. Also, a normal certificate is very specific in terms
of which domain it supports. For example, a certificate for
www.domain.com does not work for mail.domain.com, ftp.domain.com,
or even domain.com. If this is important to you, you can either
purchase multiple certificates or a wildcard certificate that
supports any number of subdomains. Wildcard cert prices are
typically 4-5x higher than for a single cert. Finally, many cert
companies offer verification seals that you can add to your SSL web
pages. These allow your clients to click or hover over the seal to
get a quick verification that your site certificate comes from a
recognizable brand. Useful, perhaps, if you want to brag that "I
care enough to purchase certs from Thawte, Network Solutions,
Geotrust, et. al." or "I'm a penny-pincher and use GoDaddy!"