Today our Australian consultants have launched a blog on the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols which aim to provide client and server systems with a means of establishing an encrypted communication channel. Though best known for putting the "S" in HTTPS, their use is not limited to web-based systems; they are also commonly used as a wrapper for other unencrypted services such as FTP.
While SSL has historically been the dominant protocol for securing the Internet, a rash of attacks in recent years has prompted a migration to its successor, TLS. This alone is not enough to guarantee a secure connection, however.