If you offer products and services on your site and you'd like the payment details that people submit to be risk-free, you need an SSL certificate. Secure Sockets Layer is a protocol that encrypts the data exchanged between a user and a web server, but in order to obtain an SSL, you'll need a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). This is Base64 encoded information that the SSL service provider will use to create the certificate. The CSR contains the web address, Business name and Unit, mailing address and e-mail of the entity which will use the certificate. The Certificate Authority evaluates and authorizes the CSR before it gives an SSL certificate which is signed in an electronic format using its private key as an authority. To set up an SSL, you will need a total of 4 batches of code - the CSR, a Private Key that is created after you generate your Request, the actual certificate and a specific Certificate Authority code, which is unique for each and every vendor.