Re: SSL certificate?
An SSL will do absolutely nothing for those who don't practice good password security already. As for the SEO benefits it's a very weak signal and would serve ecommerce sites much better then a forum looking for a rank boost. For the cost it's too cheap not too go https:// but let's be real on the benefits and security as it will not save people with bad security practices already.
VBulletin sites are commonly attacked with brute force dictionary attacks against lists of common usernames (millions of them). Some people feel as though they were singled out and someone is hacking their account, not likely... You've just got a username that exists on many other (of the millions) of forums on the web and it's been compiled into a list. Once they get your username then they (malicious users) do dictionary attacks against your password to hopefully gain access. attacks like this can occur in seconds but most hosts including LiquidWeb who HBC hosts with can provide protection against these type of brute force attempts.
If you access HBC from public wifi connections (starbucks) then you're more at risk to get your passwords scraped then someone sitting at their desktop or using a secured connection already.
Don't Go Ninja'n Nobody, Don't Need Ninja'n!