TLS – Transport Layer Security

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol that provides security for networks.

TLS allows communications across networks in a way that prevents tampering and eavesdropping. The communications are encrypted at the transport layer on each end of the communication. TLS is based on the earlier SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) specification.

In it’s most widespread usage, browsers, the authentication is one way. The server is authenticated, but not the browser.

The client and server exchange codes when a TLS connection is first established. There are three algorithms that are negotiated:

• Key exchange and authentication algorithm to use during the handshake
• Encryption algorithm to encipher the data
• Message Authenctication Code to create the cryptographic hash of each block of the message