What are Security Certificates and what are they used for?
Security Certificates are a method of establishing trust and encrypting communication between different entities on a network
An entity can be a person or a computer
Certificates are issued to each entity, much like an identification card might be issued to each member of an organization
Each Certificate must be signed by a Certificate Authority, often referred to as the CA
Every certificate signed by the CA will trust every other certificate that is also signed by the same CA
When two certificates trust each other, they can be used to encrypt a connection
This is especially important when transmitting a username and password across the internet
Each service provided by Computerisms will use Security Certificates to encrypt network connections
Sites you visit that have https:// in the address bar are secured by a certificate
So why do I get a Security Certificate Warning?
Certificate warnings can be caused by several factors, but the most important thing to know is that just because you see a warning does not mean the site is not secured
One possible reason for the Certificate Warning is that your computer does not know the origin of the certificate on the server
When you go to an https enable site that does not show the warning, it is because the certificate on the server and a certificate on your computer have been signed by the same CA
Since Computerisms doesn't pay the hefty fees to have its certificates signed by the same CA used by your computer, your computer will not trust the server's certificate
Since your computer cannot verify the origin of the certificate on the server, it cannot establish a trust relationship with the server
The warning will inform you that the certificate on the server cannot be trusted because its origins cannot be confirmed
Since you know the origins of the certificate (It comes from Computerisms), you can override your computer's paranoia
By temporarily overriding the warning, you instruct your computer to trust the certificate on the server
Once the trust is established, then the certificates can be used to encrypt the communication so your password is not transmitted in clear text
Another reason a security certificate warning might pop up is a mismatched address
If you arrive at the site by a name that is different than the one on the certificate, your computer will warn you about it.
Remember, regardless of the warning, when you instruct your computer to trust the certificate, encryption will still happen so it is safe to send your passwords over the internet
Certificates can be purchased for the server so the warning doesn't appear in your browser, but they are prohibitively expensive for our hosting environment
Certificates in general are very very expensive in proportion to the effort required to make them.
Computerisms can make certificates that will encrypt a connection every bit as good as a paid certificate for a small fraction of the cost
Certificates generated by Computerisms will not be automatically trusted by your computer, and therefor will always show you the certificate warning
In the case of Computerisms and its customers, we can manually establish our trust, which in turn allows encryption of our passwords
Despite the warning, the encryption is still taking place on our system
Said another way: Security certificates are still securing your transmission, even though the warning might make you think otherwise.
Computerisms Certificates can be installed on your machine in such a way that your computer will trust the Computerisms certficates
If you do not want to see the warning at every page, then please follow these instructions
Importing the Computerisms Certificate Authority
The easiest way to install a certificate is using Internet Explorer
Open your start menu and choose "All Programs"
In the list, right click Internet Explorer
In the menu, choose "Run as Administrator"
If you are presented with a window confirming the program should be allowed to make changes to your computer, select Yes
