InstantSSL - Frequently Asked Questions

What is SSL?

Secure Sockets Layer, SSL, is the standard security technology for creating an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browser remain private and integral. SSL is an industry standard and is used by millions of websites in the protection of their online transactions with their customers. In order to be able to generate an SSL link, a web server requires an SSL Certificate. InstantSSL is such a Certificate, and when installed, can be used to create secure links to protect transactions, passwords, personal details, etc.

Why does an InstantSSL Certificate cost considerably less than other Certification Authorities?

InstantSSL has direct access to the IdAuthority, the largest commercial directory on the web. InstantSSL can therefore expediate the validation of an application. This efficient and highly effective validation method ensures we can issue a Certificate at a greatly reduced cost as reflected through our guaranteed lowest price in the industry as well as maintain a level of validation far superior to the methods employed by other SSL providers. In particular, the validation process employed to issue an InstantSSL, InstantSSL Pro or PremiumSSL Certificate is considerably more than just a domain name ownership check - we firmly believe this method alone to be insufficient to maintain the level of integrity in SSL that consumers have come to expect.

What is the difference between an InstantSSL, InstantSSL Pro and PremiumSSL Certificates?

InstantSSL Certificates are designed to secure intranets and low cost transactions. Our InstantSSL Pro and PremiumSSL Certificates are designed to secure all web servers. Whilst technically the three flavours of certificate are identical, due to the nature of how we intend the $49 InstantSSL Certificates to be used, they carry a reduced warranty ($50 maximum warranty). This reduced warranty enable us to further reduce the cost of the certificate to you. However, InstantSSL Pro Certificates carry a warranty of $2500 and PremiumSSL Certificates carry a greatly increased warranty of $10,000 for your total peace of mind.

What does the Warranty actually mean?

We believe it is important to protect the end user. If we were to mis-issue a certificate to a fraudulent site, and that fraudulent site has an SSL link with an end user and as a result of this the end user loses money. The end user had what they thought was a "trusted session". BGC should never have provided the fraudster with the ability to engineer this situation. Hence, we have taken out insurance to pay out money to the end user. How can we do this?

1. We value the end customer
2. We believe the insurance provides greater peace of mind, and allows the merchant to sell more products
3. Most importantly, we value our validation techniques (delivered through www.idauthority.com)

We pre-validate customers and provide validation that is far higher than the majority of other SSL providers. Some CA's have very weak validation hence they decide NOT to offer insurance! Finally, it is worth pointing out, that we offer high validation, but not at the compromise of speed. You can still obtain SSL instantly.

How long does it take to process my application?

Provided we have sufficient validation information available through the IdAuthority (as described in our CPS), your InstantSSL, InstantSSL Pro or PremiumSSL can be issued in only minutes. If additional verification processes must be used to validate your application, the issuance process may take slightly longer. In such cases we guarantee that the Certificate is issued within 2 working days.

Which versions of the SSL protocol is InstantSSL compatible with?

InstantSSL is compatible with any browsers and webservers using SSL version 3 - the de facto SSL implementation. SSL version 1 and version 2 have been superseded by version 3 for a number of years, mainly due to the inherent security flaws found in these old versions. All web browsers developed after Internet Explorer 3 and Netscape 3 use SSL version 3 (however still support older SSL protocol versions).