The internet is a great place to find information and do business, but with the freedom the web offers also comes risks. Many websites, especially those that send and receive private or sensitive data, use what are called SSL certificates. These help to not only ensure that the site is safe and secure, but also provide a standardized means by which the user of the website can have the peace of mind that the site they are visiting is being secure with their data. SSL stands for secure socket layer. This is a technology originally developed by Netscape as a means to keep the web safe way back when they were the most popular internet browser. The technology has dramatically improved since that time, but in essence still serves the purpose of providing secure connections and the secure transmission of data