The concept of internet security has never been as important as it is nowadays. While over a third of the world’s population have connected to the Internet and are gaining access to the incredible facilities it provides, it also raises the potential of malicious threats made towards these individuals and the systems they use.
As a business owner, it is your duty to consider the security of your customers, especially if you are handling sensitive data that they are trusting you with. Investing in a SSL certificate from a reputable provider such as the Symantec certificate authority, will help to protect the personal information passed between your web browser and the business server, as well as proving to your customers that you are who you say you are.
While many businesses opt for the standard SSL certificate, others will prefer to plump for the Wildcard certificate, due to the potential to protect and secure unlimited subdomains, making it a more versatile and far-stretching certificate.
As with any SSL certificate, there are pros and cons to a wildcard certificate. Bear these in mind when deciding on what to invest in.
Pros
- Secure unlimited sub-domains – many businesses require security for many sub-domains rather than just the one, such as mail.domain.co.uk, login.domain.co.uk and shop.domain.co.uk. With normal SSL certificates, you would have to buy one for each domain but wildcard certificates can cover them all in one fell swoop.
- Pay less – it may cost more for the certificate but if you compare this with how much you’d pay on the individual ones, you’ll end up saving money.
- Manageable – One wildcard certificate means only one certificate to manage!
Cons
- Security – Only one certificate means that if one server is compromised, the others will be vulnerable too. Check for the CA’s that allow unique private keys for each wildcard certificate.
- Compatibility – Some mobile device operating systems don’t recognise wildcard certificates
If you require security across various sub-domains, a wildcard certificate would be the ideal option and well worth the investment as a business owner.
