TLS
Definition
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is the successor to SSL, providing a more secure method for encrypting internet communications and protecting data
Use Cases
- Cloudflare: Encrypting web traffic between end users and websites to protect logins, payments, and API calls. — Terminates TLS at its global edge network and manages certificates at scale, including automated certificate issuance/renewal and modern cipher/TLS version support for customer domains. (Improved confidentiality and integrity of customer traffic, reduced operational overhead for certificate management, and better user trust through HTTPS.)
- Google: Securing user connections to Google services (e.g., Search, Gmail) and protecting data in transit. — Uses HTTPS with TLS across consumer services and supports modern TLS versions and strong cipher suites; certificates are deployed at scale across global front ends. (Reduced risk of interception and tampering on untrusted networks and improved overall security posture for internet-facing services.)
Provider Equivalents
- AWS: AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)
- Azure: Azure Key Vault Certificates
- GCP: Certificate Manager
- OCI: OCI Certificates
Frequently Asked Questions
- What's the difference between TLS and SSL?
- SSL is the older protocol family; TLS is its modern replacement. In practice, people still say “SSL,” but secure systems use TLS (for example, TLS 1.2 or TLS 1.3). TLS fixes known weaknesses in older SSL versions and supports stronger cryptography.
- When should I use TLS?
- Use TLS whenever data travels over a network you don’t fully control—especially for websites (HTTPS), APIs, mobile app backends, and service-to-service traffic. It’s essential for logins, personal data, payment data, and any internal microservice calls that could be intercepted on shared networks.
- How much does TLS cost?
- The TLS protocol itself is free, but you typically need a TLS certificate and infrastructure to terminate TLS. Many certificate authorities offer free certificates (for example, via ACME-based providers), while commercial certificates can cost more depending on validation type and support. Cloud costs may include managed certificate services (often low or no direct fee) and the compute/load balancer/CDN resources that perform TLS termination, plus potential costs for dedicated IPs or advanced features.
Category: security
Difficulty: intermediate
Related Terms
See Also