What is the full form of SSL

SSL: Secure Sockets Layer

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It is the standard security technology (a protocol) that offers secure communication between web servers and browsers (web clients) over an insecure network, such as the internet. It maintains the privacy and integrity of the data exchanged between a web server and browsers.

The web server is required to have an SSL certificate to establish a secure SSL connection. SSL encrypts network connection segments which are above the transport layer, which is a component of network connection above the program layer.

SSL works through an asymmetric cryptographic mechanism, in which the web browser creates a public key and a private key. The public key, which is called certificate signalling request (CSR), is placed in a data file. The private key is generated for the recipient only.

It makes the data, which is shared between users and sites, impossible to read. It uses encryption algorithms to scramble data in transit, to prevent hackers from reading it. This data may be your bank login id and password, credit card details, social media login details, and other financial information, etc. For example, when you shop online, the details you share with the websites remain safe.

SSL is the predecessor of Transport Layer Security (TLS), a protocol for the secure transmission of internet data. TLS (Transport Layer Security) is an updated and more secure version of SSL. You can see the HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) in the URL of a website, which is secured by an SSL certificate. To see the details of the certificate, you can click on the lock symbol on the browser bar to the left of the URL.

Internet Engineering Task Force has discontinued both SSL 2.o and 3.0 in 2011 and 2015 respectively and replaced them by the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol.

Benefits of SSL:

• Data integrity: The data can't be tempered as it is not sent as a plain text, so even if it is intercepted, it could not be decoded.
• Data privacy: The privacy of data is maintained using a series of protocols, including the SSL Record Protocol, SSL Handshake Protocol, SSL Change CipherSpec Protocol, and SSL Alert Protocol. So, confidential information, such as social security number, credit card number, login details, can be transmitted securely.
• Client-server authentication: It uses the standard cryptographic technique to authenticate the client and server.