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The Secure Sockets Layer protocol (SSL) is used to ensure that a network transaction (such as a web request) is serviced by the intended network host (such as a web site). SSL also prevents transmitted data from being intercepted by a third party. It does this by encrypting the traffic using public/private key encryption. The public key is obtained via a certificate which is validated against a trusted certificate authority.
The client holds a well-known public certificate of an organization that it trusts (the certificate authority). The client then requests the certificate of the server that it needs to connect to. If the server's certificate is correctly signed by a trusted certificate authority, the client proceeds with the connection and negotiates the encrypted communications channel.
Typical SSL applications include online purchasing and webmail (many providers are moving to SSL). An increasing number of web sites and applications (such as instant messaging) are also starting to use SSL. In particular, the widespread use of social networking sites is a major cause for concern regarding data loss. The ability to analyze data transmitted over these networks is increasingly important.
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