SSL Proxies, or Secure Socket Layers, are proxies that use the SSL Cryptographic protocol that allows your communication to be sure. Most of the time, those that use proxy servers are accessing normal sites, but when HTTPS servers need to be accessed you can do so with an SSL Proxy that allows you to safely shop online or visit certain websites, forums or other online pages that are secured. That way, you still have the privacy and anonymity of a proxy server, but you are also able to access secure pages that you need to visit.
How Do I Know if My Proxy Supports SSL?
The HTTPS:// prefix denotes a secure site. If you are accessing a secure site that has this in the name of the server, rather than the normal HTTP://, and you are doing it through a proxy server then your proxy server supports the SSL. Many websites have this secure feature and finding a proxy server that will support the SSL encryption is not difficult, as there are lists that include information on whether or not the proxy does support SSL encryption. Find one of these lists and test out the proxy servers yourself to find out if they will work.
How Does SSL Encryption Proxy Servers Work?
Secure Sockets layer is the standard method used to protect sensitive data transmission over the internet. SSL connections are required for anything that you purchase over the web normally, and can provide extra protection for visiting websites in which SSL is necessary to provide added security for transactions like purchases and anything else that a secure connection is used for. This can also be used when you are trying to access a protected area that requires that you enter a username and password to gain access to.
SSL Encryption allows you to both verify that you are communicating with the website that you intended to, and that no one can determine what your communication with that website is while it is in transit. For instance, sometimes hackers set up spoof websites that look exactly like your bank’s website, paypal or some other secured site and unless you check the URL on every page, you cannot be sure of being at your bank’s website and not a hackers. Also, information sent over the internet can be monitored and SSL Encryption works by using public key cryptography. Normally, encrypted files can be translated with each person having a password, which is used to both encrypt and decrypt the messages. But that doesn’t help those who have never communicated before, and that is where the SSL encryption with its public key cryptography comes in. Each person has a public key and a private key and that allows messages to only be decrypted by the person that they were meant for, and to verify that a certain message came from that person and not someone else.
This public and private key is known as a certificate, and they are provided by companies such as Thawte and Verisign, which require that the companies prove who they are and that they are able to use the URL provided. They usually fill out a great deal of paperwork and pay a fee in order to have the privilege of a certificate. Then, when a client tries to communicate with the company’s website they encounter a certificate, which proves that the website that the client is trying to communicate with truly is the company’s website.
