What is SSL?

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a security standard designed to provide secure connections on the Internet. Using an SSL solution, you can encrypt confidential data and exchange it over the Internet between Web servers and clients. The minimum components of an SSL solution are an SSL-equipped server, an SSL-equipped client, and a public-key certificate installed on either the server (typical) or the clients (the exception), or both.

Although an SSL solution typically has the public-key certificate installed on a Web site on the server only (in which case it is often called a server certificate) the data sent by both the server and the client are encrypted. This can be confusing. The server owns the certificate, but both parties to the transaction get access to the keys used for encryption. The server certificate is used to satisfy the client that the service provider is trustworthy. The authentication method used by the server to authenticate the client establishes that the client is trustworthy. Now a secure, encrypted two-way communication ensues, using public, private, and secret keys for encryption and decryption of the data sent over the Internet.