Google is gradually starting to sunset SHA1 Encryption.  This will mean that if your SSL is using SHA1 Encryption, it will eventually show that your site is untrusted despite the fact that you have purchased the SSL from a reliable issuer.

How do you know if you are affected?

1. If you have a website that has an SSL installed, you will want to verify the encryption for your certificate.
2. If you have an active SSL, you will want to visit https://shaaaaaaaaaaaaa.com/ to check the encryption of your secured site.
3. If the site shows that the SSL is SHA1 Encrypted, please contact the issurer of your SSL to have it reissued using SHA2.
4. If the site shows that the SSL is SHA2 Encrypted, you are not required to take any further steps.

Do you need an SSL and just what IS an SSL?

Internet is all about credibility. Or to be more precise, e-commerce or online businesses are all about being well-known, trusted and reliable. If people don’t trust a webpage or company, they won’t be willing to consider doing business with it, specially since nowadays private information is consistently being targeted and leaked.

In order to be a trustworthy name on the Internet you need to have an SSL certification. Of course the question is, do you need to be trustworthy? The answer will depend on your website type. Not all webpages need to have an SSL certificate to function. But SSL is a basic need for some sites.

What is SSL Actually?

SSL means Secure Sockets Locker. This protection makes sure that whatever information is shared by people on your website, remains secure and seen only by you. Without it, there is a chance anyone can easily intercept private information of your customers and misuse it. So SSL basically acts like a safe or a locker in which information remains secure while traveling between your webpage and your customers’.

So do You Need an SSL Certification?

Now as mentioned earlier, if your website runs anything which requires information like usernames and passwords, you will need an SSL certification to safely keep this data secure. People rarely enter data or share anything private on pages which start with http inside of the SSL certified https. This applies especially for e-commerce websites. if you don’t have an SSL, no one is going to use a credit card to purchase your awesome product. However, websites using third party payment processors can avoid getting SSL. This is because in this case credit card and personal details are shared on another party’s webpage and not yours.

The point to always keep in mind is that if your website requires private information, you require an SSL certificate.