How Do Wildcard SSL Certificates Work?

SSL Certificate is used to get a secure connection between a server and a browser while transferring sensitive data to avoid misuse of data being shared or transferred. There are different levels of certification validation. Few are listed below:

Extended Validation Certificates
Organization Validated Certificates
Domain Validated Certificates

Wildcard SSL Certificate

In this article, we will talk about the Wildcard SSL Certificate. SSL certificate safeguards data from a third party by ensuring secure link/connection between a server and a browser. But, when it comes to securing all sub-domains along with main domain, the Wildcard SSL certificate is needed. Workings of both the certificates, i.e. SSL Certificate as well as Wildcard SSL certificate is almost the same with only one major difference and that is Wildcard SSL Certificate not only provides security to the main domain but also, to all other sub-domains linked to the main domain irrespective of SSL certificate, which provides security to only the main domain.

Working of Wildcard SSL Certificate

• When an organization applies for Wildcard SSL Certificate, it means that it owns multiple website or subdomains.
• When CA (Certification Authority) issues a certificate, the organization must ensure that all subdomains are associated with the main domain else it will affect the level of security.
• Once the validation of the domain and the subdomain is checked, Wildcard SSL Certificate will provide the same level of security to the main domain and all other subdomains associated with it.
• Wildcard SSL Certificate will look for all the possible subdomain names and will provide security to them. For example, a Wildcard SSL Certificate is issued to *.mybusiness.com, where ‘*’ represents all the subdomains associated with the main domain and in return Wildcard SSL Certificate will provide security to all the possible subdomains suffixed ‘.mybusiness.com’