Define: Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

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Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

SSL is a cryptographic protocol that provides secure communications on the Internet for such things as web browsing, e-mail, Internet faxing, instant messaging and other data transfers. A virtual tunnel is created between the server and the client and the communicated data is encrypted hindering eavesdropping, tampering, and message forgery.

This is used for e-commerce sites collecting sensitive data such as credit cards and making payments.

The successor of SSL is TLS (Transport Layer Security), which currently has not yet become a standard for most sites.