Whenever you see a little padlock in the address bar of your internet browser, as well as when you use apps, email and messaging, you’re relying on something called ‘transport layer security’ or TLS. It’s a protocol that keeps us safe online.
Behind that little padlock is cryptographic code that guarantees the security of data passing between you and, for example, the website you are looking at.
In fact, TLS guarantees security on three fronts: authentication, encryption and integrity. Authentication, so that your data goes where you think it is going; encryption, so that it does not go anywhere else; and integrity, so that it is not tampered with en route.
‘It’s the most popular security protocol on the internet, securing essentially every e-commerce transaction,’ Eric Rescorla, chief technology officer at US technology company Mozilla, told Horizon over email. […]
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