Ensuring website security is crucial if your e-business is going to be successful. Customers need to be able to trust that their personal and payment information is going to be safe and not in jeopardy of being stolen. The answer to website security is a technology called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). SSL is a was originally developed by Netscape® Communications, it uses public key encryption and decryption to ensure secure data transfer. Read what Microsoft® says about SSL, click here.

There are numerous reputable Certificate Authorities (CA). I can help you weed-through the clutter to determine which  digital SSL certificate is right for you. As of August, 2005, the least expensive reputable SSL certificate I'm aware of for use on small e-commerce websites is $35 (US) per year. Contact me for more information.

About public key encryption/decryption:
Public key encryption is a technique that uses a pair of asymmetric keys for encryption and decryption. Each pair of keys consists of a public key and a private key. The public key is made public when it is distributed it widely. The private key is never distributed; it is always kept secret. Data that is encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the private key. Conversely, data that is encrypted with the private key can be decrypted only with the public key. This asymmetry is the property that makes public key cryptography so useful.