Without thorough security, information transmitted over the Internet is susceptible to fraud and other misuse by intermediaries. Information traveling between an individual computer and a server uses a routing process that can extend over many computer systems. Any one of these computer systems represents an intermediary with the potential to access the flow of information between your computer and a trusted server. You need security to make sure that intermediaries cannot deceive you, eavesdrop on you, copy from you, or damage your communications. These standards provide the foundation for a wide variety of security services, including encryption, message integrity verification, authentication, and digital signatures.
Encryption transforms data into some unreadable form to ensure privacy.
Authentication identifies an entity such as an individual, a machine on the network, or an organization. Digital signatures bind a document to the possessor of a particular key and are the digital equivalent of paper signatures. Establish internet sites on a secure server. The SSL protocol is able to negotiate encryption keys as well as authenticate the server before data is exchanged by the higher-level application. The SSL protocol maintains the security and integrity of the transmission channel by using encryption, authentication and message authentication codes.