// THREAT DETECTION AND DATA PRIVACY TERM
TLS
TLS, or Transport Layer Security, is a security protocol designed to encrypt communication over the internet. It ensures that data exchanged between a web server and a client (like your browser) remains private and cannot be tampered with.
TECHNICAL DEFINITION
TLS (Transport Layer Security) is a cryptographic protocol providing secure, authenticated, and private communication over a computer network, primarily via asymmetric and symmetric encryption, ensuring data integrity and confidentiality between client-server applications. As the successor to SSL, TLS is foundational for securing internet traffic, including HTTPS, FTPS, and SMTP.
BACKGROUND
Computer security is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It focuses on protecting computer software, systems, and networks from threats that can lead to unauthorized information disclosure, theft, or damage to hardware, software, or data, as well as to the disruption or misdirection of the services they provide.
READ MORE ON WIKIPEDIASYNONYMS & ALIASES
- Transport Layer Security
- SSL
- Secure Sockets Layer
- SSL/TLS
USAGE NOTE
TLS is a critical component for securing nearly all internet-based communication, particularly web browsing through HTTPS.
DEVELOPERS
Organizations developing technology related to TLS.
Cloudflare provides a global network that offers web performance and security services, including extensive development and deployment of TLS features, such as universal SSL, TLS 1.3 adoption, and advanced certificate management.
DigiCert is a leading global provider of high-assurance digital certificates, including SSL/TLS certificates, playing a crucial role in securing web communications and the TLS ecosystem.
Let's Encrypt is a non-profit certificate authority run by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) that provides free SSL/TLS certificates, driving widespread adoption of encrypted web traffic and developing automation protocols like ACME.
F5 Networks develops application delivery controllers (ADCs) and security solutions that include advanced TLS/SSL offloading, termination, inspection, and management capabilities to secure and optimize application traffic.
Cisco develops a wide range of networking and cybersecurity products, including firewalls, VPNs, and secure web gateways, all of which heavily implement and manage TLS for secure communications and threat inspection.
Palo Alto Networks provides next-generation cybersecurity platforms that perform advanced TLS decryption and inspection to identify and prevent threats hidden within encrypted traffic.
The OpenSSL Project develops the OpenSSL toolkit, an open-source cryptographic library that provides implementations of TLS and SSL protocols, widely used by countless applications and systems worldwide for secure communications.
Google is a major developer in the TLS space through its Chrome browser (driving TLS 1.3 adoption), its BoringSSL library (a fork of OpenSSL for internal use), and its leadership in the development of QUIC and HTTP/3 which embed TLS 1.3.
Mozilla develops the Firefox browser, which relies on and helps drive TLS standards, and maintains the Network Security Services (NSS) library, an open-source set of libraries that support cross-platform development of security-enabled applications, including TLS.