To make our website secure we need an SSL Certificate which is very important for the websites to keep them safe from hackers who can hack the website and misuse your personal information. So we provide SSL Certificates to the website to keep it secure from hackers. The Certificate Authority provides this SSL Certificate. Many types of SSL certificates are made according to the user’s need and secure from hackers. One of the SSL Certificates is the Wildcard SSL Certificate; this certificate protects the subdomain of that website on which you have issued the Wildcard SSL Certificate. This SSL Certificate gains the trust of the users visiting your website or any subdomain of that particular website.
What is a Wildcard SSL Certificate?
Just think that what will happen if you want to secure multiple domains of your website with SSL Certificates then for each domain you have to buy an SSL Certificate which will cost you very much. So to solve this problem of yours there is an SSL Certificate which is called Wildcard SSL Certificate. This SSL Certificate is used to secure the subdomains of that domain. And this Wildcard SSL Certificate will reduce your expenses and make all your subdomains secure.
Because of this certificate, you have not to buy multiple SSL Certificates for each subdomain of that particular website. It will be difficult for you to manage all these certificates.
What are the benefits of a Wildcard Certificate?
There are some benefits of using this Wildcard Certificate which is listed below: –
(1) It will secure multiple sub domains for you and there will be no use in buying more certificates for each subdomain.
(2) It is cost-effective because if you buy multiple SSL Certificates for each sub domains, it will cost you very much. But if you buy a Wildcard Certificate, it will reduce your cost compared to buying multiple SSL Certificates for each sub domain.
(3) If you are using many SSL Certificates for securing each sub domain then it will be not easy for you to manage them all, but if you use Wildcard Certificate, then it will be easy for you to manage because a single SSL Certificate is used for protecting each sub domain.
(4) Through Wildcard Certificates you can issue SSL Certificate for any subdomain very quickly and fast but if you are issuing SSL Certificate for every single domain then it is time-consuming. And you have to wait for the SSL Certificate to get issued for that domain but in Wildcard SSL Certificate there is no such waiting time.
Some security risks also while choosing Wildcard SSL Certificates.
Wildcard SSL Certificates have only one private key that is used to access all the sub domains, making the work easier. But there are also some risks of using this Wildcard SSL Certificate which is: –
(1) If you are using an SSL Certificate for each sub domain and if any SSL Certificate has lost its private key then only that subdomain will be affected not all the sub domains but if you are using a Wildcard Certificate then your all sub domains and the website will be affected because of this, and this is a very serious security issue for the Wildcard Certificates.
(2) A similar issue arises from the first point, which is of managing that private key over so many servers. Because some stole that private key from any of the servers, it will affect your all sub domains and the website and your personal data will be at risk and may be misused by the hackers. So this is a significant issue for the Wildcard Certificate users which needs to be solved.
(3) If you are using a different SSL Certificate for all your sub domains, this will only be for that particular website if any of the certificates will be revoked. But if you are using Wildcard Certificate and if the Wildcard Certificate is revoked then all your sub domains will be insecure. So if your Wildcard Certificate is not renewed on time, it will create many problems for you, so you have to renew it on time and keep a check on this.
If you are okay with all these security risks then you can go for the Wildcard Certificate. There are many companies providing Wildcard Certificates at different costs, you can choose any of them according to your convenience. Some companies providing Wildcard Certificates are: –
(1) Comodo PositiveSSL Wildcard
(2) RapidSSL Wildcard
(3) Sectigo Wildcard SSL
(4) DigiCert Wildcard SSL
(5) Symantec Wildcard SSL
To avoid this security risk you have to keep your private key secure and ensure that they are not misplaced or stolen. You have also to check that when the Wildcard Certificate is revoked and you have to renew it before this, it will create a massive problem for you. And you should use these Wildcard Certificates for only sub domains, but not for the production site to make your production site secure. If a hacker gets access to your production site, he or she will misuse that data for their benefit.
