Apache SSL is used to serve both dynamic and static content web pages

Apache is the most popular HTTP server on the web, serving roughly 70% of the websites. However, when it was developed back in early 1995 the web server was a set of patches, it was therefore considered "a patchy" server. In making sure your server is secure, Apache SSL puts the S in HTTPS.

Of course the most common use of SSL is to secure a web communication between the browser and a web server. The non secured version is just HTTP. The secure version is HTTP over SSL which is where the HTTPS(ecure) comes from.

The Apache SSL also uses a different port. The majority of websites connect through port 80. HTTPS uses a different server port; it uses port 443 by default. Mod_ssl provides this for the Apache web server.

When you purchase a product online and are re-directed to the payment page, for the customers' safety it should be a secured web page. Meaning, that whatever information is given by you will be encrypted so it can't be tampered with or stolen.

For example, PayPal® is the most well known payment processor online today, with over 100 million accounts. Just imagine the amount of financial information they have on their servers. If only half of their customers have one credit card listed on their account that means they have been trusted with over 50 million credit card numbers. Do you think this would be the case if their web servers weren't secure?

No one would trust any site, whether it's a big processor like PayPal® or a smaller independent ones if there was a chance their information would be out in the open. The Apache SSL web server encrypts any information going between the browser and the server.