TLS

How it works

• Your browser and the site agree on a secret key before any data moves.
• Everything after that is scrambled in transit.
• It is the modern name for SSL.
• Forms, logins and payments should always run over it.

What can go wrong (example scenario)

A two-person bookkeeping firm's contact form ran on plain HTTP. A client filled in a SIN and banking details at a coffee shop. Anyone on that Wi-Fi could have captured the form submission in plain text.

How WILDCARD handles it

Domain Security keeps the DNS that certificates and TLS rely on accurate. Managed Hosting runs your site with TLS switched on and current.

• A dental office's online intake form collects health information and must travel over TLS.
• A law firm's email between its Microsoft 365 tenant and a client's server is encrypted in transit by TLS.
• A retailer's checkout page needs TLS or the browser labels it insecure and shoppers leave.

Example scenario: A small landscaping company had a website on an old host with TLS 1.0 only. Newer browsers started refusing to connect. The owner assumed the site was down. The fix was moving to a host with current TLS, and the site came back for every visitor.

A question owners ask

Is TLS the same as the padlock?

The padlock means the browser made a TLS connection with a valid certificate. So yes, the padlock is TLS doing its job.