Editing Transport Layer Security (section)

{{short description|Cryptographic protocols for securing data in transit}}
'''Transport Layer Security''' ('''TLS''') is a [[cryptographic protocol]] designed to provide communications security over a computer network, such as the [[Internet]]. The [[communication protocol|protocol]] is widely used in [[Application software|applications]] such as [[email]], [[instant messaging]], and [[voice over IP]], but its use in securing [[HTTPS]] remains the most publicly visible.

The TLS protocol aims primarily to provide security, including [[privacy]] (confidentiality), integrity, and authenticity through the use of [[cryptography]], such as the use of [[public key certificate|certificates]], between two or more communicating computer applications. It runs in the [[presentation layer]] and is itself composed of two layers: the TLS record and the TLS [[Handshake (computing)|handshake protocols]].

The closely related [[DTLS|'''Datagram Transport Layer Security''' ('''DTLS''')]] is a [[communications protocol]] that provides [[communications security|security]] to [[datagram]]-based applications. In technical writing, references to "('''D''')'''TLS'''" are often seen when it applies to both versions.<ref>i.e. {{Cite news |title=Delegated Credentials for (D)TLS |url=https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-tls-subcerts-15 |access-date=2024-06-26 |newspaper=Ietf |language=en |archive-date=2024-06-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240626174852/https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-tls-subcerts-15 |url-status=live }}</ref>

TLS is a proposed [[Internet Engineering Task Force]] (IETF) standard, first defined in 1999, and the current version is TLS 1.3, defined in August 2018. TLS builds on the now-deprecated '''SSL''' ('''Secure Sockets Layer''') specifications (1994, 1995, 1996) developed by [[Netscape Communications]] for adding the [[HTTPS]] protocol to their [[Netscape Navigator]] web browser.