What is SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)?

By | February 26, 2022

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, in short, we can say that it’s the standard technology for keeping an internet connection secure and safeguarding any sensitive data that is being sent between two systems

To prevent criminals or hackers from reading and modifying any information transferred. This information could be anything sensitive or personal that can include credit or debit card numbers and other financial information, names and addresses, etc..

Let’s say two systems can be a server and a client (for example, a shopping or  E-Commerce website and browser) or server to server (for example, an application with personally identifiable information or with payroll information).

It makes sure that any data transfer between users and sites, or between two systems remains impossible to read. It uses encryption algorithms to scramble data while transmitting and prevents hackers from reading it as it is sent over the connection.

The TLS (Transport Layer Security) is an updated and more secure, version of SSL. We still refer to the security certificates as SSL because it is a more commonly used term, but when we buy SSL certificates from  SSL Certificate providers then We actually buy the most up-to-date TLS certificates.

Key points:

You should note that HTTPS usually listens on port 8443, rather than port 8080.

HTTPS = HTTP over SSL

Why use SSL certificate?

As we know that SSL is an encrypted channel for communication. HTTP is the way to transfer web pages and other web content across the network. SSL Certificate(HTTPS) as being a safely encrypted channel to transmit data over the web.

If our application does not use SSL then connecting with the webserver is unencrypted all the data will be sent in plaintext any middle man or hackers can obtain and view that data.

Few top SSL Certificate Providers:

  1. Symantec
  2. GeoTrust
  3. DigiCert
  4. GoDaddy
  5. Network Solutions

That’s all about What is SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)?

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