Starfield Technologies - Business Opportunities Secure Socket Layer

As a provider of the building blocks that enable businesses to secure a prominent online presence, Starfield Technologies is committed to building strong and lasting alliances with leading companies.

Starfield's Internet foundation services enable its partners to meet the demands of the rapidly growing Small/Medium Business (SMB) and Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) markets.

Starfield Partnerships
Starfield's powerful products and services provide the infrastructure that allow its partners to meet customer demands.

Become a Starfield partner
Please complete our Partnership Inquiry Form, or to become a reseller call 480-505-8857.

Secure Socket Layer technology is based on the ancient art of cryptography.

When a visitor enters a secure area of an SSL-protected Web site, the visitor's browser sends a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) to the server on which the Web site resides. This generates two unique cryptographic "keys": A public key, used to encrypt messages sent to the certificate holder, and a private key, used to decipher those messages.

In order to establish a secure link between a Web site and the visitor's Web browser, the Web server will match the SSL Certificate to the private key. Because only the Web server has access to its private key, only the server can decipher SSL-encrypted data.

The whole process is completely invisible to the user and works in this way:

Upon accessing an SSL-secured area of a Web site, the visitor's browser requests a secure session from the Web server
The server responds by sending the visitor's browser its SSL Certificate. This is called the "SSL handshake"
The browser verifies that the certificate is valid, is being used by the Web site for which it was issued and has been issued by a Certificate Authority the browser trusts
If the certificate is validated, the browser generates a one-time session key and encrypts it with the server's public key
The visitor's browser sends the encrypted session key to the server so that both have a copy
The server decrypts the session key using its private key
The SSL handshake process is complete, and a secure SSL connection has been established. Any information traded during this session cannot be viewed by anyone other than the two parties involved
A padlock icon in the user's browser bar and the "https" prefix in the URL show that a secure session is under way

Anyone who tries to submit personal information to an unsecured Web site (one that is not protected with a valid SSL Certificate) will receive a warning that the site is not secure and therefore, any information submitted to it is vulnerable to "eavesdropping." Upon receiving such a warning, most Internet users terminate the exchange. The risks are just too great.

All Starfield Technology SSL Certificates feature 256-bit encryption, the highest level available. Cracking a 256-bit encryption code is nearly impossible, even with a "brute-force attack" (systematically trying all possible combinations until the right one is discovered). The Certs recognize 99% of browsers in use today.