You've probably noticed the little padlock icon in your web browser window, next to the address of the site you're visiting. That padlock means that your connection between your browser and the server is being encrypted, so a person with malicious intent, intercepting the connection, would not be able to see the data in transit.

All Novi sites are secured this way by default. During your onboarding process, we provision what's known as an SSL certificate, which in simple terms is just a block of text used by an algorithm to encrypt traffic before it crosses the wire between you and our system. The third party that issues the certificate, known as a certificate authority, does so by verifying that the certificate matches the domain name you use. (This process uses DNS, which we talk about in a separate article here: DNS and your domain name.)

A basic certificate covers your root domain name, like "noviams.com," as well as "www.noviams.com," including the "www" subdomain on the front. These certificates are usually good 6 months before they expire, and our systems and team will automatically renew the certificate for you to keep it current.  Basic SSL certificates are included at no extra charge with Novi AMS subscriptions.

You might use services that require other subdomains, like "help.noviams.com." Your association may have a career center, an outsourced vendor guide, or perhaps a trade show app that you may wish to add to a subdomain of your website. In those cases, we recommend you work with your other vendors to secure SSL certificates for those sites as well.