SSL—Secure Sockets Layer

SSL is a cool system or, in tech speak, a protocol for allowing encrypted communication over the Internet. The need for this is obvious when you think about the type of information that must be given and received in even the simplest transaction. A customer's personal details and credit card details are the most obvious of these types of information.

By encrypting (making incomprehensible to all but the intended recipient), you can take your customers' money and personal details without worrying that their private details are intercepted by a third party.

Regular encryption relies on the sharing of a decrypting key. A decrypting key, simply speaking, is a mathematical formula for making the incomprehensible comprehensible again. SSL uses a method known as public key cryptography that allows a website, such as yours, to give an encryption key to your customer's web browser, which encrypts the confidential information before sending it. The SSL web server then has...