What is a Standard SSL Certificate and What It Protects? [Guide]

Understanding of Standard SSL Certificate and Their Functionality, Features, Examples, and Pricing.

Are you new to SSL certificates and looking for a basic level of security? If yes, then I suggest you go for a – Standard SSL Certificate. But what type of certificate is this certificate? How does it Work? Don’t worry; we got you covered.

This article will answer all these and similar queries related to the Standard SSL Certificate.

What is a Standard SSL Certificate?

A Standard SSL Certificate is a regular server security certificate that provides the basic validation level, making it an entry-level or basic certification.

Being a basic or entry-level certificate doesn’t mean that it is worthless. This certificate has some robust measures to provide website security, such as:

Standard 256-bit encryption
Website Trust Seal
2048-bit CSR encryption key
Unlimited Server Licenses
It covers full qualified domain name (www and non-www version)
It supports all the latest web browsers, mobile devices, etc.

A Standard SSL certificate contains the website owner’s basic information, such as the domain and certificate information within the browser. While issuing a standard SSL certificate, Certificate Authority (CA) doesn’t require any detailed information about the company. Domain Validated (DV) SSL and Single Domain SSL Certificate are other names that are commonly used to refer to standard SSL.

Note: A Standard SSL certificate can only protect a single domain (www and non-www versions of the domain); hence, you can’t use it to preserve any other domain and subdomains of the covered main domain.

Standard SSL Certificate Example

By acquiring a Standard SSL Certificate, you can secure the www.yourwebsite.net domain, as well as the non-www domain – yourwebsite.net. However, It will not be able to provide protection to any other domain or subdomain – subdomain.yourwebsite.net.

Standard SSL Certificate Authentication Process

Authenticating a Standard SSL certificate is a straightforward process. To accomplish this, the domain owner has to prove they own the domain, and this can be done by using any one of the methods mentioned below:

Email-Based Authentication: Domain owners can choose email authentication to affirm that they own the domain. Once the owner applies for the validation and authentication, the Certificate Authority sends an email to the owner, confirming whether they have applied for a DV certificate or not.

The email is sent on the official email id or the email listed in your WHOIS registration. After the CA receives a positive answer from the owner, within a few minutes, the certificate is approved.
CNAME-Based Authentication: You can choose this type of authentication only if you are one of the Sectigo (formerly Comodo) customers. Sectigo sends two hashes – SHA -2 and MD5 and asks you to enter both of these hashes on your CNAME DNS record domain name. Once done, Comodo verifies it and approves your certificate.
File-Based Authentication: If you want to go for this type of authentication, then in that case, the CA will send a text file that you need to upload on your website in a particular directory or folder. Once you complete this, the CA verifies and approves your certificate.

How Does Standard SSL Certificate Work?

Working of Standard SSL Certificate is simple. It uses a cryptographic method consisting of public and private keys to encrypt and decrypt the data transmitted between the browser (client) and the server.

The public key is utilized to encrypt the data that is being transmitted. For example:

Bank account number: 998723236789

SSL encrypts it using a public key, and after the encryption, it will be something like this: Q89HDjuWE&yugej73. Due to the encryption, the account number will be in the form of a scrambled text. And because of this, hackers or malicious actors won’t be able to read it. And the scrambled text can only be decrypted using the private key. This is how a Standard SSL Certificate works, and this is how SSL Standard Certificate protects sensitive information.

Features of Standard SSL Certificate

There are “n” number of features of a Standard SSL Certificate. Let’s go through some of the most prominent ones:

Trust indicators: Standard SSL certificates include two of the most important trust indicators: the padlock icon and https in the URL. These trust indicators assure the customers that they are interacting with a legitimate website and their data is safe.
Encryption strength: It use SHA 256 or RSA 2048-bit encryption strength, which is considered the industry standard for protecting sensitive information.
Browser compatibility: All major browsers, like Chrome, Mozilla, Safari, etc., are compatible with Standard SSL certificates.
Issuance time: It can usually be issued within a few minutes to a few hours, depending on your chosen authentication and validation process.
Warranty: Standard SSL certificates come with a warranty worth thousands of dollars that cover any losses incurred by a visitor due to a security breach caused by a flaw in the SSL certificate.

Here’s the list of some of the best Standard SSL Certificates available in the market, from which you can choose any one:

Certera SSL Certificate ($2.99/yr)
Comodo PositiveSSL Certificate ($5.49/yr)
Sectigo Positive SSL ($5.49/yr)
Comodo EssentialSSL Certificate ($9.99/yr)

In what cases is a standard SSL certificate inadequate?

A Standard SSL Certificate can be inadequate in various cases, such as:

If you wish to protect other domains and subdomains.
If you want a higher level of validation and authentication.
If you want a higher warranty and dynamic site with company information.

If you require any of the above cases, go for an Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificate or an Organization Validation (OV) SSL certificate. These certificates provide higher SSL security features, require a higher level of authentication and validation, and can protect multiple domains and subdomains using the wildcard SSL feature.

Conclusion

A Standard SSL Certificate covers only one domain, except subdomains and other websites you may own. These certificates best suit small businesses, test domains, startups, etc.

These entry-level certificates are the cheapest compared to any other certificates, such as EV or OV certificates. But, even though these certificates provide various trust indicators that help build the user’s trust, they also meet the industry standard for protecting sensitive information.