Working of SSL
For secure connection we generally use ‘https://’ instead of ‘http://’. A browser requests a secure page by https://. The affordable web hosting server sends its public key, with its certificate, to the web browser from where the site is accessed. The browser verifies the Certificate issued by a trusted SSL vendor ( a trusted CA such as Verisign). The web browser generates an encryption key by using the public key & sends the encrypted key to the server long with the URL required – encrypted. The web server decrypts the encryption key using its private key, and then uses the key to decrypt the browser’s request. The web server sends back the requested data, encrypted with the key. The browser then decrypts the data sent using the key, and displays the information. The encryption using a private key/public key pair ensures that the data can encrypted by one key can only be decrypted by the other key. The keys are similar in nature and each is based on prime numbers. It is necessary to keep one key secret (the private key) and to distribute the other key (the public key) to everybody. This ensures that anybody can send you an encrypted message that only you will be able to decrypt – you are the only one to have the other key pair. In the opposite situation, others can certify that a message is only coming from you, because you have encrypted it with you private key, and only the associated public key will decrypt it correctly.
