Configuring SSL/TLS

Today, online shopping is about as popular as driving to the mall was a few years ago, and registering for a class or seminar is much easier to do online instead of by telephone. But honestly, don't you always hesitate for a second before you enter your credit card number and personal information? So what's behind that HTTP Secure (HTTPS) Internet connection between your browser and the online site's server? Most likely, the online site is using either the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol or Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol.

SSL was initially developed by Netscape and in 1999 was standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in Request for Comments (RFC) 2246 and named the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. Today, SSL/TLS protocol support comes bundled with many Web servers, such as Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). Let's look at some of the hidden traps you might encounter when you configure SSL/TLS for secure Web communications. . . .