The digital certificate used with the most popular security protocol on the Internet. When you make a purchase on the Web and notice the closed lock icon at the top or bottom of your browser or the HTTPS:// prefix in the URL, it means you have established a secure SSL connection.
Your browser has examined the signed certificate received from the website, determined it to be authentic and secret keys have been computed at both ends of the connection. All the information you enter online is encrypted before being sent to the server. See
SSL,
digital certificate and
server-gated cryptography.