The term Instant SSL Certificates refers to two distinct things and may therefore cause confusion. It refers to a specific group of SSL certificates from Comodo that are provided through a variety of dealers, and it also refers to the range of certificates offered by a site called instantssl.com, which include, but are not limited to, Instant SSL certificates from Comodo.
Comodo’s Instant SSL Certificates—the Product Line
An SSL certificate is a technology to provide security on the Internet or an intranet through the creation of an encrypted link between a browser and a web server. One of the main purposes is for a customer using a browser to be able to securely convey payment information to an online merchant site on a webserver in order to complete an online transaction without putting personal information and credit card data in jeopardy.
There are three different types of Instant SSL Certificates:
- Instant SSL—designed for Intranet and transaction of a value less that $50
- Instant SSL Pro—designed for all web servers and carry a warranty of $2500
- Instant SSL Premium—designed for all web servers and carry a warranty of $10,000
Instant SSL Pro costs a little more than double the cost of Instant SSL; Instant SSL Premium costs a little more than triple the cost of Instant SSL.
It is reportedly due to Instant SSL’s direct access to IdAuthority that the application for an SSL certificate is able to be expedited and offered at a lower price. If the IdAuthority already has your company information, your certificate will be expedited and may be completed in a matter of minutes. If, however, the IdAuthority does not have complete information or the information on your application does not match the information at IdAuthority, additional documents may be required. These documents may include your:
- business license
- articles of association or DUNS information
- other information if your business is not incorporated or if you are using a trade name
You can purchase Comodo’s Instant SSL Certificates from:
• http://www.instantssl.com/ssl-certificate-products/ssl-certificate-index.html
• http://www.positivessl.com/ssl-certificate-products/ssl/ssl-certificate-instantssl.html
• the Parallels Partner Storefront, available through Parallels Plesk Panel 10
InstantSSL.com
Instant SSL.com ofers a variety of SSL products as well as PCI compliance assessments. The SSL certificates include:
- three types of Extended Validation (EV) certificate
- two types of wildcard certificate
- Unified Communications (UC) certificates
- Server Gated Cryptography (SGC) certificates for older technology
- all three types of Instant SSL certificate
- Essential SSL Certificates, which provide only domain validation
- Free SSL Certificates
For a one-year certificate, prices range from free to $474.40 per year.
FYI
According to the hacker who breached Comodo in March, 2011, coming up with 9 fraudlents certificates for sites like mail.google.com and login-yahoo.com was InstantSSL.it, a Comodo registration authority (RA) and sister site of instantssl.com, the US version.
Sources
http://www.quadrahosting.com/ssl/
tp://www.instantssl.com/ssl-certificate-support/app_validation/ssl-certificate-index.html
http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201113/6975/InstantSSL-it-named-as-source-of-Comodo-breach-by-attacker
https://www.instantssl.it/index77.asp
http://www.securitypark.co.uk/security_article265575.html
