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What is SSL/TLS? And Why Should I Care?
Ever wonder what it means for something to be https?
You might be aware of what it is, but could you explain Secure Socket Layer/ Transport Layer Security to a layman? Can you picture in your mind what is happening when you type https://google.com into the browser? Allow us to take a journey, and we’ll start with a simple trip into the 90s, so prepare your VHS box sets.
A brief history
Back in the Netscape days of yore, the first secured traffic was established by SSL v1. It was never released to the public, but soon after v2 was released. There were major issues with v2 that lead to a rushed v3. Soon after, Microsoft and Netscape fought because, well, it is what Microsoft does best, and when v3.1 of SSL should have appeared, we instead had a new thing called TLS, which is pretty much just v3.1 of SSL with a nice RFC attached to it (meaning it is an open standard as well). And since then, more versions of TLS have appeared to make the web even more secure (TLS 1.2 is the latest). More info here.
And how does this mystical technology work? How do you transfer something securely without having ever traded a private key before? How would I ship something to your house and ensure only you could open it? That my friends, is where asymmetric encryption comes in
