Time to Upgrade: Say Goodbye to 1024 bit SSL

1024 bit SSL certificates are about to be obsolete.After January 1, 2014 the 1024 bit SSL certificate will join floppy disks and gopher servers in the grave yard of forgotten technologies. A new standard set by the Certification Authority/Browser (CA/B) Forum required that SSL certificates issued after January 1, 2014 must have a key length of at least 2048-bit.

What do you mean by “key length”?

An SSL certificate includes a value that is used to encrypt message for secure communication. The value is represented by a combination of 1s or 0s, each digit is called a bit in computer speak.

Why is Key Length Important?

The more bits in the key the more possible values can be represented. The key needs to be large enough so that it cannot be discovered with a brute force attack. In a brute force attack, you simply try every possible combination until you come across the correct one.

What’s the problem with 1024 bits?

With 1024 bit key I can represent a lot of values, would seem to be plenty. You have to use scientific notation for the number, 2^1024=1.797693134862315907729305190789e+308.

If you haven’t used scientific notation lately, you have to move the decimal place 308 places to the right inserting zeroes when you reach the “e”. That is a really big number! Unfortunately, with the steady growth of computing power, it will soon be not enough. Before that happens, it is important that internet security moves to the stronger 2048 bit.

How Do I Know if My Certs are 2048-bit?
Just go to the following page and you can generate a discovery report to see if their certs are 2048, and it’s free!

http://www.comodo.com/enterprise/discovery-report.php

Action Required: What do I need to do?

If you own any 1024-bit certificates expiring this year, you must renew them by generating a 2048-bit or higher CSR.  If you have certificates expiring in 2014 or later you need to replace and upgrade all 1024-bit certificates with 2048-bit.  The deadline was October 1st, so if you have not done so you are past due!

Original Source: http://blogs.comodo.com/e-commerce/time-to-upgrade-say-goodbye-to-1024-bit-ssl/

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Cheap and High Quality: Not an Oxymoron at Comodo

We have a running debate here at Comodo as to whether to use Low Cost or Cheap in referring to our SSL Certificates. My friends who like to use “cheap” argue that more customers looking for SSL use the word cheap in their searches than “low cost” and it makes our web pages easier to find.

Personally, I hate using the word cheap because it could be misinterpreted as low quality, which is not the case with any of our SSL Certificate products. Whether you purchase the low cost domain validated certificates or pay the extra money for Enhanced Validated certificates, you will still get the highest quality encryption technology available.

Encryption is the heart of SSL, but not the only feature to consider in purchasing an SSL certificates. You need to consider what degree of verification you to present to your site visitors and the higher levels do cost more. Certificates that provide higher level of organization and identity verification provide an additional service that is badly needed by some web sites, especially e-Commerce sites that need the trust of their customers. The additional cost can be miniscule compared to the benefit of protecting and assuring your customers.
However, if you’re using the certificate for intranet site you might be able to use a Domain Validated certificate or simply Organization Validation and save some money. You have to match your purchase to your needs.

What every customer or potential Comodo customer needs to know is that regardless of what type of certificate you chose from Comodo, you get the highest quality encryption and verification services in the industry at one of the lowest prices available for each product category.

Low Cost and high quality. How can you beat that?

Original Source: http://blogs.comodo.com/e-commerce/cheap-and-high-quality-not-an-oxymoron-at-comodo/

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