SSL provides the following features for securing confidential data as it transverses over the Internet:
- Authentication
- Data integrity
- Data confidentiality through encryption
SSL works by combining public key cryptography and secret key encryption to ensure data confidentiality. The Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) public key algorithm is used to generate the certificates, and the public and private key pairs utilized in SSL. When a client Web browser connects to a Web server that is configured for SSL, a SSL handshake process is initiated with the Web server. The Web server at this stage has already obtained a server certificate from a certificate authority (CA).
