SSL Certificate refers to Secure Sockets Layers. It is a type of digital security that allows encrypted communication between a website and a web browser. The technology is currently deprecated and has been replaced entirely by TLS.
TLS stands for Transport Layer Security and it ensures data privacy the same way that SSL does. Since SSL is actually no longer used, this is the correct term that people should start using.
HTTPS is a secure extension of HTTP. Websites that install and configure an SSL/TLS certificate can use the HTTPS protocol to establish a secure connection with the server.
- The goal of SSL/TLS is to make it safe and secure to transmit sensitive information including personal data, payment or login information.
- It’s an alternative to plain text data transfer in which your connection to a server is unencrypted, and it makes it harder for crooks and hackers to snoop on the connection and steal your data.
- Most people are familiar with SSL/TLS certificates, which are used by webmasters to secure their websites and to provide a secure way for people to carry out transactions.
- You can tell when a website is using one because you’ll see a little padlock icon next to the URL in the address bar.
Are SSL and TLS the same thing?
Before we talk more about SSL certificates, you’ve probably seen SSL and TLS (Transport Layer Security) used interchangeably. So, is there a difference between SSL and TLS? The answer is basically no because they’re both encrypted protocols and TLS is essentially a newer version of SSL. (SSL version 3.0 served as the basis for the first version of the TLS protocol.) TLS is a session layer protocol between the Application and Transport layers, and SSL is high-level encryption for the transmission of encrypted data. With SSL, while an outside party may still access your data, without the encryption key they won’t be able to read it..
