Why does My Campaign Need an SSL Certificate for the Website?

Encryption is a way of scrambling data so that only authorized parties can understand the information. In technical terms, it is the process of converting human-readable plaintext to incomprehensible text, also known as ciphertext. In simpler terms, encryption takes readable data and alters it so that it appears random. Data encryption is necessary for privacy, security, data integrity, authentication, and regulations. 

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and it refers to a protocol for encrypting and securing communications that take place on the Internet. Although SSL was replaced by an updated protocol called TLS (Transport Layer Security) some time ago, "SSL" is still a commonly used term for this technology. An SSL certificate is a file installed on a website's origin server. It's simply a data file containing the public key and the identity of the website owner, along with other information. Without an SSL certificate, a website's traffic can't be encrypted with TLS. 

Website owners need to obtain an SSL certificate from a certificate authority, and then install it on their web server ( your web developer should be able to help with or often a web host can handle this process). A certificate authority is an outside party who can confirm that the website owner is who they say they are. They keep a copy of the certificates they issue. Many certificate authorities charge for SSL certificates. To help make the Internet more secure, Cloudflare offers free SSL certificates. Cloudflare was the first Internet security and performance company to do so. Cloudflare also has worked to optimize SSL/TLS performance so that websites moving from HTTP to HTTPS don't have their performance impacted. 

Learn More:  Getting Started with Cloudflare SSL