At BestVest Investments, Ltd., the security and privacy of your financial information and activities is a serious concern. To prevent unauthorized parties from "listening in" on your transactions, all private information going out over the Internet is encrypted and secured using the Secure Socket Layer (SSL), an encryption mechanism that provides for identity authentication of the server, encryption and data integrity.

Since data security is a "moving target", with security protocols still evolving, we will continue to implement security features in the future that will maintain the highest levels of secure data transmissions.

Since data encryption and decryption significantly slows down communications, BestVest Investments, Ltd. transmissions to our customers come in two varieties, secured and unsecured. Files such as this one are unsecured, while sensitive transmissions come from a separate server, allowing us to optimize speed while maintaining high levels of security.

To access the client area on our secured server, you must use a browser capable of handling the level of security that we utilize.

If you are accessing the BestVest Investments, Ltd. secured client area from behind a corporate firewall, you may experience difficulties with your browser "hanging" (failing to complete loading a page). If you experience this situation, ask your corporate system administrator to establish a 'Proxy for SSL'.

When you are in a secured area, the URL (web 'address') showing in your browser will begin with 'HTTPS'. Normal unsecured transmissions show a URL beginning with 'HTTP'. Individual browsers also give indications that secured transmissions are being sent and received. Typically, an icon showing a broken key or an open lock indicates unsecured mode, while a solid key or a locked lock icon indicates a secured session is in progress.

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Protocol

Secured transmissions are done using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). This is a protocol which provides secure communications on the Internet by doing three things:

1. SSL verifies that the server that you are communicating with is the one it purports to be.


2. SSL creates a secure communication channel by encrypting all communication between the user and the server.


3. SSL conducts constant checks to verify data integrity between the server and the client (user). This is accomplished by using a checksum count of the exact number of bytes transmitted and received. If a message is not received in its entirety, it is rejected and another copy of the encrypted data is transmitted. Thus, SSL verifies that the entire message sent is actually received.