SSL Certificates and Moodle
What is an SSL certificate, and why does your Moodle site need one?
SSL Certificates protect your Moodle user’s information by encrypting the data they send to you – including the all important usernames and passwords.
When a visitor enters your SSL protected Moodle site, your SSL certificate automatically creates an encrypted connection with the visitor’s browser.
Once the connection is complete the https prefix will appear (and probably a padlock icon) in the address bar to show them they are safe to enter personal details.
All information passing to and from your Moodle site is then scrambled by encryption. This makes it difficult (in practical terms impossible) for hackers to steal.
In an effort to make the Internet more secure, most up-to-date web browsers will display a “Not Secure” warning on any site that requires logins, but does not encrypt its traffic.
All the up-to-date versions of major browsers will do this – Edge, Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera (and that makes up 99% of browser use).
So, if you don’t have an SSL certificate on your Moodle site you really should, otherwise your users will question the security, and therefore administration, of your site.
If you need to talk to someone about adding an SSL certificate to your site just email our Helpdesk – helpdesk[AT]hrdnz.com
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