Information, Computer and Network Security Terms Glossary and Dictionary

TLS: Transport Layer Security

Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, based on SSL developed by Netscape, provides privacy and data integrity between two communicating applications. TLS is used extensively by web browsers to provide secure connections for transferring credit cards numbers and other sensitive data. Though SSL was superseeded to TLS by IETF, but the SSL name has gained enough popularity and people still call the protocol SSL or SST/TLS. The protocol is composed of two layers: the TLS Record Protocol and the TLS Handshake Protocol. At the lowest level, layered on top of some reliable transport protocol (TCP) is the TLS Record Protocol.

Related Terms

TLS: Transport Layer Security