thawte White Paper Outlines Steps and Benefits of Securing Your MS IIS Web Server

thawte Technologies has put together a white paper discussing the benefits of securing your MS IIS Web Server as well as the value of authentication and a step-by-step guide for installing and setting up a thawte digital certificate. thawte is a Certification Authority (CA (News - Alert)) issuing SSL Web Server Certificates and 128-bit SuperCerts to organizations and individuals throughout the world.

The white paper, “Securing your Microsoft (News - Alert) Internet Information Services (MS IIS) Web Server with a thawte Digital Certificate,” is a detailed guide to testing, installing and using a thawte digital certificate on your company's MS IIS web server.

The paper highlights best practices for setting up your certificate to ensure efficient ongoing management of encryption keys and digital certificates. It also discusses the role of thawte as a trusted third party as well as the benefits of using a digital certificate from the company to address online security issues and build customer confidence. Specific instructions are included for: generating a private key and certificate signing request (CSR (News - Alert)) pair, backup of the private key file, requesting a thawte test certificate, installing a thawte certificate, configuring the certificate for use in MS ISS and exporting the thawte certificate with the private key attached after installation.

Supplemental information is also included like useful URLs, a glossary of terms, information on contacting thawte and a discussion of thawte's role in authentication as well as its value. The company verifies that the organization ordering a certificate is indeed a registered organization, and that the person who ordered the certificate is authorized to do so. thawte also ensures the organization owns the relevant domain. The company's digital certificates interoperate with the latest software from Microsoft and Netscape, ensuring customer confidence and security about conducting online transactions.

According to thawte, information is a critical asset to your business. Identifying with whom you are dealing and if the data you are receiving is trustworthy are critical steps to ensuring the integrity and safety of your information. Proper authentication can help in establishing trust between the parties involved in all types of transactions by addressing a number of security issues.

These include spoofing, in which con artists can mimic the website design of an established organization and obtain credit card information through professional looking storefronts; unauthorized action, in which a competitor or disgruntled customer can alter a website and force it to malfunction or refuse service; unauthorized disclosure, in which transaction information is transmitted “in the clear,” enabling hackers to intercept transmissions to obtain sensitive customer information; and data alteration, in which the content of a transaction can be intercepted and altered maliciously or accidentally during transmission.

The white paper is available as a free download on TMCnet.com.

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