SSL Web Server Certificates

Thawte SSL Web Server Certificates:

The Thawte SSL Web Server Certificate offers comprehensive authentication procedures (domain name and identity verification). It also offers 256, 128, 56 or 40-bit encryption depending on your client's browser capability and the cipher suite installed on your web server. This ensures that information is kept private while in transit between your web server and your clients' web browsers.

Certificate Features and Benefits:

Is this the right product for my business?

Your choice of digital certificate depends mainly on whether identity assurance to your customers is vital, and that your company details are added to the certificate contents. This facility comes standard with both the SSL Web Server Certificate and the SGC SuperCert after a stringent verification process.

For absolute peace of mind that you are getting highest protection possible, a SGC SuperCert is always recommended.

What does the certificate do?

When one applies for a Thawte SSL Web Server Certificate, the verification and authentication procedure that that particular individual/group/company is subject to is of the very highest standard. In fact, a stringent checklist of activities is undertaken to ensure that you really are who you claim to be. An overview of the validation process is as follows:

• Authentication:
  • Company registration details confirmed
  • Confirmation that domain is owned by requesting party.
• Verification:
  • 3rd party telephone listing used to confirm that the authorized person requesting certificate is employed by requesting party.

The value of this process cannot be underestimated, and it is this that has been the foundation of Thawte's enviable reputation as a rock-solid independent Certification Authority (CA).

What does a Thawte SSL Web Server Certificate do?

• It inspires trust in those who are considering communicating/transacting with you, by verifying that you are who you say you are.
• It guarantees information privacy and protects information in transmission between your web server and your clients' web browsers using 256, 128, 56 or 40-bit encryption, depending on your client's browser capability.

Technical details:

Certificate Signing Request (CSR) File

The process of applying for a Thawte signed digital certificate begins with the generation and submission of a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) file. Thawte then verifies your identity, and when satisfied, signs that request file, using the trusted Thawte CA root key, and issues it to you as your certificate.

Valid certificate

When we issue your certificate it will contain two critical pieces of information. The first is the "Distinguished Name", which is a set of values that describes your country, state or province, city or town, organization, division within that organization and your web server domain name. The second is your public key.

Secures Internationalized Domains:

Thawte now provides SSL certificates to customers who use Internationalized Domain Names – the first Certification Authority to offer this. Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) provide a convenient mechanism for users to access websites in their preferred language.

Thawte's systems are now able to recognize and issue certificates that contain local language characters in all certificate fields.

What this means is that you can now buy an SSL123 Certificate, an SSL Web Server Certificate or an SGC SuperCert to secure the website you have hosted on an Internationalized Domain Name.

Not only will your secured Internationalized Domain content be reflected in the certificate details, but your Thawte Trusted Site Seal will also reflect your local language content. Thawte systems are also fully internationalized across all certificate enrollment details including Code Signing Certificate product lines.

Online Certificate Status Protocol:

A major software vendor has released a beta version of their browser that will have automatic certificate revocation checking as a default option

This new checking protocol will maximize the speed of checking the status of Thawte certificates and will minimize the possibilities of online fraud as invalid certificates and companies will immediately be exposed to the end customer

Thawte has invested significantly in the infrastructure which can support OCSP - something not all CAs will be able to provide and support.