Glossary
SSL/TLS Certificate
That padlock in your browser? It means the site has a certificate proving it's really who it claims to be, and your connection is encrypted. Without it, anyone could pretend to be your bank.
What is SSL/TLS Certificate?
A digital certificate that authenticates a website's identity and enables encrypted connections.
Why Should You Care?
Without a valid SSL/TLS certificate, websites display browser warnings that repel users and can trigger search-ranking penalties, directly harming traffic and conversion rates. Expired or misconfigured certificates can cause complete service outages, disrupting operations and damaging customer trust. For compliance-sensitive industries like healthcare and e-commerce, certificate failures create liability exposure; standards like PCI-DSS mandate valid certificates for handling sensitive data.
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Real-World Example
In 2020, Microsoft Teams suffered a widely reported outage when an internal SSL certificate expired, leaving users unable to access the service until it was renewed. Expired certificates have also taken down government and enterprise websites—when certificate renewals are missed, otherwise healthy services become unreachable and visitors are blocked by browser security warnings. These incidents show how a single unmonitored certificate can cause an outage as disruptive as a security breach.
How to Protect Against SSL/TLS Certificate
- 1.
Install SSL/TLS certificates on all websites
- 2.
Set up certificate expiration monitoring
Related Terms
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