is extremely important.

We want to be able to make sure data that

is sent across the internet is something

that only I am able to see and the web

servers are able to see.

So, for web pages we use a number of different encryption

technologies to be able to do this.

You'll see this often represented

as HTTPS, which is our Hypertext Transfer Protocol with the S

on the end and S means secure, which

means that's an encrypted connection.

So, what you're doing is essentially

setting up that encrypted link to that web server

and it's using an encryption method called

TLS, which is commonly called SSL, although that's not

technically an accurate representation of what this is.

But when somebody says, "I have SSL

encryption on my web server," that

is what they're referring to.

It's able to then do HTTPS.

Now, this Transport Layer Security,

and some people still call it Secure Sockets Layer,

is what's really doing the hardcore

encryption for our server.

SSL was an encryption technology created by Netscape way

back in the day, and it was updated

and a standard was created by the Internet Engineering Task

Force, the IETF, that updated it and created

a new name for it called TLS.

So, we can see that that's a little bit different than SSL.

Now, the reality is that the web servers

that you're connecting to are really

encrypting the data with TLS.

Even if they say on the web server,

"This is SSL encrypted data," it's

really TLS that's doing It.

And the way you can tell is to go to your browser,

and there's a lock on your browser

that shows you that the data is encrypted,

and that's the method that's being used in your browser

to be able to do that.

This technology is also used in things outside of the browser,

and you don't have to use HTTPS and that TLS encryption

in the browser, third-party applications

can use those as well.

It's an encryption technology and something

that's very easy to implement because the libraries are

open and available for anybody to use.

So people will sometimes use this to hide information

from the security folks.

Because they're using their own devices

with their own encryption certificates,

you don't have access to be able to see some of those things

sometimes.

So, if you see a large amount of SSL or TLS

type traffic on your network and you're wondering,

"Where's that coming from?

Where's it going to?

I don't recognize it," you may want

to look a little bit deeper and find out

what's really happening on that particular link

of communication between those two machines.