The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a commonly-used protocol
for managing the security of a message transmission on the Internet. SSL
has recently been succeeded by Transport Layer Security (TLS), which is
based on SSL. SSL uses a program layer located between the Internet's
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Transport Control Protocol (TCP)
layers. SSL is included as part of both the Microsoft and Netscape browsers
and most Web server products. Developed by Netscape, SSL also gained the
support of Microsoft and other Internet client/server developers as well
and became the de facto standard until evolving into Transport Layer Security.
The "sockets" part of the term refers to the sockets method
of passing data back and forth between a client and a server program in
a network or between program layers in the same computer. SSL uses the
public-and-private key encryption system from RSA, which also includes
the use of a digital certificate.
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