The Need for Certificates 

SSL or Secure Sockets Layer, in conjunction with digital certificates, are used to assist in the securing of a digital transmission. Before we get too involved with how certificates work, it's imperative to understand what it is you're trying to secure with a certificate in the first place. Perhaps we should start by defining what “security” actually entails.

Most security systems are based on three fundamental components: confidentiality, integrity, and authentication. Confidentiality is usually what people think of when they think of security; it is what keeps a conversation private from unauthorized eavesdroppers. In technology, confidentiality is typically achieved through the use of encryption. Message integrity is a means of ensuring that a given message wasn't tampered with during transit. Integrity is typically achieved with some type of cryptographic function. Finally, authentication guarantees the person or system at the other end of the conversation is actually who they claim to be. This is where digital certificates come into play.

Trust and Authenticity

Simply put, digital certificates provide authentication. In the context of of e-commerce, providing the authentication component of a security system certifies to your customers you really are who you say you are. Authentication is essential, but it's important to remember that digital certificates alone do not provide security. (Make this a blockquote)In order to have a secure system, one must not neglect to include confidentiality and message integrity. It's not uncommon to witness IT departments spent large sums of money on SSL certificates, only to install them on web servers which support weak encryption ciphers and antiquated versions of SSL.