A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate, or root certificate, is a data file provided by a certificate authority (CA) that digitally identifies the sender, receiver, or both parties of a secure transaction. SSL certificates are installed on machines running FileMaker applications to provide secure connections between FileMaker Server and FileMaker clients.
FileMaker Server provides a standard SSL certificate signed by FileMaker, Inc. that does not verify the server name. The FileMaker default certificate is intended only for test purposes. A custom SSL certificate is required for production use.
To secure your data, you can take advantage of several FileMaker Server features:
•To verify your server name to clients and prevent web browsers from displaying certificate warnings, request a signed SSL certificate that matches your server name. You request a certificate from a trusted CA supported by FileMaker, Inc. See FileMaker Server Installation and Configuration Guide. See also Creating a certificate signing request.
•Review FileMaker Server log files to monitor accesses to databases. See Viewing log file entries.
•For more information about creating accounts that authenticate via an external server, see FileMaker Pro Advanced Help and the FileMaker Knowledge Base.
•In FileMaker Pro Advanced, you can use the Database Encryption feature to encrypt the contents of a database file. FileMaker Server supports hosting encrypted databases. With FileMaker Server, the server administrator enters the encryption password when the file is opened for hosting. See Opening hosted files.