From Software Licenses to SSL: What Every Online Business Needs to Know
What you’ll learn (quick skim)
- The practical differences between license types (and what vendors really audit).
- A simple checklist for SSL/TLS that avoids scary browser warnings and subtle SEO drags.
- How to set sensible policies for vendors, data, and secrets without turning into a bureaucracy.
- A lightweight security and compliance baseline that any small team can run.
Two true stories from the trenches. First: a tiny e‑commerce shop wakes up to “Your connection is not secure.” Conversions fall off a cliff before lunch. Second: a startup gets an email titled “License Review.” (Translation: please prove you’re compliant—now.) Both felt like doom, but both were fixable in a day. The lesson? The unsexy parts of running online—licenses, certificates, policies—don’t matter… until they matter a lot.
If you’d rather focus on sales and product, same. But a few smart moves up front will save you from fire drills later. Let’s walk through the essentials—from Software licenses to SSL—like humans, not auditors.
Licenses: clearer than you think (and where people panic)
Here’s a friendly map so you don’t Google in circles:
1) Commercial/EULA
You buy access to use a program under terms that usually restrict sharing, copying, and reverse engineering. Watch for: per‑user or per‑seat limits, server counts, and whether staging/production count as separate installs. Keep purchase proof and keys in one folder your team actually remembers.
2) Open Source (yes, there are rules)
Open source is free like a library, not free like a free‑for‑all. Most licenses are permissive or copyleft:
- Permissive (MIT, BSD, Apache‑2.0): Use, modify, sell, keep code closed if you want—just keep notices and, for Apache, mind patent clauses.
- Copyleft (GPL, AGPL, LGPL): If you change and distribute the program, you may have to share your changes under the same license. AGPL extends this to network use. Great for community, trickier for closed products.
What to do in practice:
- Maintain an inventory of dependencies (a simple spreadsheet or an SBOM export). Note license type and obligations.
- For copyleft packages, have a policy: allowed, allowed with constraints, or not allowed in shipped code.
- Keep license notices intact in your app/about page or docs where required.
3) SaaS subscriptions
No installer, but still a license via Terms of Service. Check seat limits, API call quotas, rate limits, and data‑processing clauses. Know what happens if you cancel—data export, retention, and deletion timelines matter.
4) Fonts, images, templates
These bite teams all the time. Track where each asset came from and the license (webfont vs desktop, commercial allowed, attribution needed?). Drop a tiny ASSETS.md file in your repo with sources.
Vendor audits—what they actually ask: proof of purchase, user counts, install locations, version numbers, and occasionally screenshots. If you can produce a one‑page “license ledger,” audits become boring instead of terrifying.
SSL/TLS: green padlocks, real trust
Browsers used to show a dramatic green padlock; now they mostly scream when something is wrong. Your job is to give them nothing to scream about.
The bare minimum that isn’t actually bare:
- Certificate type: DV (domain validated) is fine for most shops. OV/EV add org details; not a ranking factor, still may help trust in some industries.
- Auto‑renewal: Set it up. Put renewal notices in a shared email. Expired certs kill sales.
- Redirects: Force HTTPS everywhere (301 from HTTP to HTTPS). No mixed content (images/scripts over HTTP).
- TLS version:2 or higher. Disable weak ciphers. (Your hosting panel likely has toggles.)
- HSTS: Enable with a conservative max‑age once you’re sure HTTPS works across subdomains.
Wildcard or multi‑domain? If you run many subdomains (shop.example.com, api.example.com, cdn.example.com), a wildcard cert is convenient. For distinct brands/domains, use SAN (multi‑domain) certs or separate certs.
CDNs and reverse proxies: If you’re behind a CDN, make sure TLS is correctly configured both at the edge and origin. “Flexible” modes that decrypt at the edge but talk HTTP to your server are a security smell.
Why SSL affects SEO and conversions anyway: Modern browsers label non‑HTTPS forms as “Not Secure,” which scares people. Search engines prefer fast, secure pages. Plus, some payment providers require TLS settings above a certain baseline.
Policies that aren’t paperwork for paperwork’s sake
You can be lightweight and still look (and be) professional.
1) Acceptable Use & Admin Rights Who gets admin? Who approves new tools? Small teams can stick this in a one‑pager. Principle: least privilege, quick reviews.
2) Vendor Approval One person (or channel) approves new systems that touch customer data. The checklist: data stored, region, encryption at rest/in transit, export options, and DPA availability if you operate in the EU or handle EU residents’ data.
3) Asset & License Ledger A table with: tool name, owner, seats, renewal date, cost, license type, obligations/notes. Add calendar reminders for renewals. That’s 80% of audit defense.
4) Incident Basics If X happens, who does Y by when? Write three tiny runbooks: outage, data exposure, and website compromise. Include contact emails, backups location, and a “first actions” checklist.
Security, but make it practical
You don’t need a SOC—yet. Do the simple things relentlessly.
Passwords & auth Use a password manager, 2FA for everything, SSO where you can. For your own app, hash with bcrypt/Argon2, enforce password length, and add login throttling.
Secrets No API keys in screenshots or Git history (we’ve all done it). Store secrets in environment variables or a managed vault. Rotate keys when people leave.
Backups Automate nightly backups. Test restore quarterly. Keep at least one offsite copy. Know your RTO (how long to recover) and RPO (how much data you can afford to lose).
Updates Patch the stack: CMS/plugins/themes, libraries, OS. Calendar it. Vulnerabilities love neglect.
Web app headers Set the easy wins: Content‑Security‑Policy (start narrow and iterate), Referrer‑Policy, X‑Content‑Type‑Options, frame‑ancestors, Permissions‑Policy. Mark cookies Secure, HttpOnly, and appropriate SameSite.
DDoS and rate limits A basic WAF and sensible request limits stop a lot of noise. If you run an API, require keys and add per‑IP or per‑token throttles.
Payments, privacy, and the “grown‑up site” signals
Payments Use a reputable processor. Turn on 3DS/SCA where required. Have a clear refund/chargeback policy and display it. Reconcile payouts weekly—detect anomalies fast.
Privacy Post a privacy policy written for humans: what you collect, why, how long, who you share with, how to opt out. If you use analytics/ads, honor consent settings. Keep a Data Processing Addendum with vendors that touch personal data.
Email Set SPF, DKIM, and DMARC (p=quarantine at least). Use a custom sending domain (mail.yoursite.com). Warm up gradually. Unsubscribe links should work—sounds obvious; breaks surprisingly often.
Legal pages Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Cookies, and a real Contact page. Put company name, address (or registered agent), and support email. Tiny sites win trust with details.
Accessibility & UX basics Alt text for images, keyboard navigability, color contrast, focus states, and readable fonts. Bonus: better SEO and lower bounce.
Domains, DNS, and why “boring infrastructure” saves days of pain
Domains Enable WHOIS privacy if appropriate, lock the domain, and add renewal reminders years ahead. Keep registrar access in the password manager under a shared vault.
DNS Document your records (A/AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT). If you change hosts or CDNs, old records linger and break email or subdomains. Consider DNSSEC if your registrar supports it.
Staging vs production Have a staging URL behind a login. Never let search engines index it; block via auth, not just robots.txt. Accidental duplicate content is a common, silly own‑goal.
A 30‑minute monthly ritual (copy/paste this)
- Check certificates: expiry dates, HSTS, redirect chain.
- Scan pages for mixed content using your browser console on key templates.
- Update the license ledger: seats used, renewals in the next 60 days.
- Review vendors that added new features or changed terms—any privacy or pricing flags?
- Test restore one small backup. Don’t just trust the green checkmark.
- Run a mini accessibility audit on a new page type.
Put it on the calendar. Fifteen minutes if you’re disciplined, thirty if you chat.
Tiny stories, big lessons
- A café with an online store lost card payments for two days. Cause: expired cert; auto‑renew failed after a DNS change. Fix: one shared “cert renewal” email and a dashboard check.
- A SaaS app faced a stern email from a vendor: 18 users on a 10‑seat plan. It wasn’t malicious—people forgot to revoke accounts for alumni contractors. Fix: monthly seat review and SSO off‑boarding.
- A boutique agency shipped staging credentials in a public repo. (Ouch.) Fix: rotate everything, add a pre‑commit hook to block secrets, and move env vars to a proper vault.
Quick FAQ / Tips
Do I really need OV/EV certificates? Usually no. DV is fine for most businesses. Invest the effort in clean redirects, auto‑renewal, and performance.
What if I’m not sure about an open‑source license? Check the project’s license file and docs. When in doubt, ask in issues or choose a permissive alternative.
How much documentation do we need? One page per topic: licenses, SSL/TLS, vendors, incidents. Keep them in the same place. Update monthly.
What’s the fastest win this week? Turn on 2FA everywhere, set SSL auto‑renew, write an ASSETS.md, and create a license ledger. That alone prevents 80% of messes.
A gentle closing thought
Treat Software and certificates like the plumbing behind your storefront: invisible when it works, reputation‑destroying when it doesn’t. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s reliability. A little structure—an inventory here, a policy there, a monthly ritual—buys you peace of mind at a discount. And peace of mind is quietly profitable.