A method for verifying the authenticity of a certificate in a web browser using an SSL/TLS (Secure Socked Layer/Transport Layer Security) protocol in an encrypted internet connection to an HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) website, wherein a web server of the HTTPS website has an SSL certificate provided with a thumbprint issued by a certificate authority governed by a third party, the web server has registered contact data of a user in a customer register and the web browser has a list of trusted certificate authorities, the method comprising:
- establishing an encrypted connection to the HTTPS website placed on the web server with the Internet connection as a first messaging channel using the web browser on the user's terminal device;
- authenticating the user during a first step of a two phase login process to the HTTPS website with steps including:
- sending a certificate including a public key of the HTTPS website and signed by a trusted certificate authority to the user's web browser from the web server using the Internet connection;
- comparing the certificate authority that has signed the certificate against the list of trusted certificate authorities embedded in the web browser;
- and verifying that the certificate authority is included in the list;
- and authenticating the user during a second step of the two phase process to the HTTPS website after completing the verifying the certificate authority with steps including:
- sending the thumbprint of the certificate as an additional security check key from the web server using a second messaging channel, external to the Internet connection between HTTPS website and web browser of the user's terminal device, and the contact data in the customer register based on the first step of the two phase login process;
- comparing the additional security check key with the thumbprint received by the web browser from the web server via the Internet connection for verifying the authenticity of the certificate;
- and
- generating the certificate on a certificate server utilizing the private key of the certificate server and the public key of the HTTPS website.