Feb 16, 2015: India is witnessing a boom in E-commerce sector. People are enjoying internet shopping. With every online transaction, there is increasing risk of your money being slipped into someone else’s purse. The fear is not quiet unfounded. However, E-commerce ventures, who are genuine and serious trying to allay such fears by employing SSL protocol.

The Secured Sockets Layer provided encryption of users private data when your web browser makes a connection with a website. “A user while purchasing a product should make sure that browser URL should show a padlock and possibly a green colour address bar while he enters his personal or financial details like credit card or debit card details or reveals bank account credentials online”, says Shweta Sharma, promoter of HealthPostIndia..

HealthPost is a marketplace dropship modelled Healthcare, Fitness and Personal care E-commerce portal providing online shopping facility across India. The portal uses secured digitally certified connection between the client and its web server. With SSL empanelment, the data is encrypted and user’s privacy maintained as it becomes almost impossible for a cyber criminal or a hacker to steal private information. A secured address bar should display a ‘https’ instead of ‘http’.

Not only an E-commerce site should have SSL but when a customer leaves site’s secured connection it should directed to a payment gateway which must show a validated connection with green address bar.

“If address bar shows a padlock, green colour URL bar and HTTPS, then it is fine to transact on the site if site prima facie follows other regulatory frameworks”, adds Shweta Sharma.

A Certificate Authority issues a SSL certificate only after verifying the credetials of applicant if the person owns the domain. Authority also confirms the identity of the applicant company like it’s registration details, address and sometimes even account. A certificate is then linked with a trusted root certificate of CA. The root certificates are embedded in certificate store in major internet browser like Chrome, Firefox and Mozilla. If a browser encounters a certificate that is not chained to its root certificate or certificate store, then it will warn the user of unsecured connection and potential harms associated using such browser.

Providing confidential information in such browsers could be threatening. The SSL certificate on an E-commerce site would have details of like issue date, expiry date and Certifying Authirity’s credentials besides it also makes sure that the SSL is being used for the site it has been issued too.

So, don’t worry. If you are making a purchase on a SSL certified site, your purse is safe and secured. Go ahead and have a happy online shopping. You are protected.

S. K. Gupta, New Delhi,
16 February 2015