Engineering and Science - Data Security and Privacy

^{Photo by Liam Tucker on Unsplash}

Data Security and Privacy are fast becoming some of the most essential considerations for internet users and customers today. For businesses offering any form of internet services such as Web/App Development, Digital Marketing, [FIN]Tech, etc... this means that if you aren't doing that yet, you must find a way to show that security is at the forefront of the services you offer.

For most users/customers, an SSL certificate is the starting point for ensuring that they have the assurance that their content and activities are not being snooped upon by malicious individuals for whatever reason. As a matter of fact, browsers which haven't started yet will in the future issue warnings when users open any platform which is not hosted with an SSL certificate.

Sadly, if you look even at some serious government online platforms, you may still find some of them hosted on HTTP or in some cases, without the necessary HTTP->HTTPS redirect which is supposed to ensure users don't have to double check themselves. 🤦🏿🤦🏿🤦🏿

^{SSL Representation on Wikimedia}

While SSL certificates used to (and some really great ones could) cost quite a bit, for quite some time now... services like Let's Encrypt, ZeroSSL, etc with missions to foster a more secure internet have worked to ensure that everyone can get basic SSL security for free... Yup! that means there's almost no reason why your site shouldn't have one.

Of course, although the technicalities abound, any decent developer should be able to navigate the path to ensuring your site has an SSL. One of the most notable issues with free SSLs is the fact that some services such as GoDaddy will not support automatic handling of LE certificates making it seem pretty cumbersome. This brings me to the resource I'll like to share today.

If you host on Godaddy or any other service that doesn't not fully integrate LE and want to reduce the hassle of using LE SSL, https://freessl.tech/ is the resource you need to explore today as it handles complete automation, including SSL certificate installation.

Well, if your hosting service already integrates SSL automatically, huzzah! If not, then check what you need to do to ensure your site or those of your clients is HTTPS, else you'll receive beatings one of these days.

#stayAwesome