Transport Layer Security (TLS)

What is TLS?

Data exchanged between applications over the Internet is secured end-to-end using the cryptographic protocol TLS. Secure Socket Layers (SSL), which was first created in 1994 to secure web sessions, gave rise to TLS.

The fact that TLS does not secure data on end systems should be noted. It merely makes sure that data is delivered securely across the Internet, preventing potential listening in and/or content tampering.

What does TLS do?

Users are most likely to be familiar with it from its use in safe web browsing, and in particular from the padlock icon that shows up in web browsers when a secure session is started. It can, and in fact, ought to, be used for other purposes as well, including e-mail, file transfers, video/audio conferencing, instant messaging, voice over IP, and Internet services like DNS and NTP.

How does TLS work?

When sending data securely, TLS uses a combination of symmetric and asymmetric cryptography because it offers a good balance between performance and security.

Data is encrypted and decrypted using symmetric cryptography, which uses secret keys that are normally 128 but preferably 256 bits long and are known only to the sender and recipient (anything less than 80 bits is now considered not secure). Symmetric cryptography is computationally efficient, but because it uses a shared secret key, it must be shared in a safe way.

Asymmetric cryptography uses key pairs – a public key, and a private key. A public key and a private key are used in asymmetric cryptography. Although the private key and the public key are connected, it would be computationally difficult to deduce the private key from the public key. As a result, the sender can encrypt data they want to send to the recipient using the recipient’s public key, but the recipient’s private key is required to decrypt it.

What is the difference between TLS and SSL?

TLS originated from the earlier Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology, which was created by Netscape. TLS version 1.0 was first developed as SSL version 3.1, but the protocol's name was changed before it was made public. Because of their shared history, TLS and SSL are sometimes used interchangeably.

What is the difference between TLS and HTTPS?

The HTTP protocol, which is used by all websites and several other web services, is built with TLS encryption, or HTTPS, on top of it. Thus, TLS encryption is used by any website that supports HTTPS.

Why should businesses and web applications use the TLS protocol?

TLS encryption can assist in defending web applications from attacks and data leaks. Today, websites should always use HTTPS that is TLS secured. Regular Internet users are more cautious of websites that do not display the HTTPS padlock emblem.

How does TLS affect web application performance?

Performance of web applications are barely impacted by the most recent TLS versions.