Secure Sockets Layer

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a protocol designed by Netscape Communications to provide secure communications over the Internet using. SSL is layered beneath application protocols such as HTTP,, , FTP, and  and is layered above the TCP/IP connection protocol. It is used by the access method.

History
SSL 1.0 was never released due to security issues and SSL 2.0 was actually the first version to be publicly released by Netscape in February 1995. SSL was officially deprecated in 2015 and replaced by Transport Layer Security (TLS).