128bit SSL certificates are $65 per year. If you do not know what an SSL certificate is or what it does, please read "how to protect web forms" below.
Security VS. Encryption
When you take orders for products or services online, your customers expect your web site to be secure, so that their personal information and/or credit card information is not intercepted. As an online store owner, it is important for you to realize that security and encryption are two different things. Security is a state of mind (how secure your customers feel), and encryption is a way of protecting data. The point is that you want your customers to FEEL secure, while doing your best to protect their data.
How to protect web forms
If you have ever shopped online, you know that when you are viewing a secured web form there is a padlock icon or a key icon (like this 
) that appears at the bottom of the web browser. That padlock means that the information that you are sending through that form is encrypted using SSL (Secure Socket Layers). This is how ALL banks and virtually all online e-commerce site protect data. Most web surfers are now savvy enough to know when a web form is encrypted. To evoke the encryption, the URL starts with HTTPS instead of HTTP (note the "S"). That tells the web server to use the SSL certificate to initiate a secure data tunnel, and to offer validation information on the connection so that the certificate can be verified.
Getting Your Own SSL Certificate
SSL Certificates are purchased from US government-approved security companies. To help protect US national security, only certain companies are considered to be trusted sources for SSL certificates. These companies include Verisign, GeoTrust, Thawte, and others. SSL certificates expire each year to help keep them secure, so they have to be renewed. It is usually less expensive for you to let us help you register your SSL certificates, because of our sales volume. Typical cost for an SSL Certificate is $100 per year, per domain name. There is also a one-time setup fee to install them on our servers. SSL providers usually ask for proof of ownership of your domain name, as well as documents that identify your company as a legal entity. A business license or certificates of incorporation (or certificates of formation for an LLC) help to speed the process along. Creating an SSL certificate can take a week if you provide these documents. Otherwise we will need a letter on letterhead from your company and it may take two weeks to get the certificate.
