SSL/TLS

What is SSL/TLS?

SSL/TLS is the technology that encrypts data as it travels between a browser and a server. It is what turns http into https and puts the padlock in the address bar. SSL was the original protocol; TLS is its modern successor. The industry still says "SSL" out of habit, but every secure connection today actually uses TLS.

It does two jobs at once. It encrypts the traffic, so anyone intercepting the connection sees scrambled noise instead of passwords or card numbers. And it verifies identity, so the browser can confirm it is really talking to the right server and not an impostor. That verification relies on a certificate issued by a trusted authority. When you log into a bank, TLS is what stops someone on the same coffee-shop wifi from reading your credentials as they cross the network. Without it, that data would travel as plain text anyone nearby could capture.

It is no longer optional. Browsers mark plain http sites as "not secure," and search engines favour encrypted ones. A misconfigured or expired certificate breaks the site for every visitor at once, which is why certificate management is part of running any serious web property.

SSL/TLS at Dallonses

We treat encryption as a baseline, not a feature to discuss. Every site and application we ship runs on TLS, with certificates provisioned and renewed automatically so nobody is relying on a calendar reminder to keep the site online. An expired certificate is an outage, and it is an avoidable one.

In our web development work we wire certificate management into the infrastructure itself, so renewal happens without anyone touching it. When we hand a system over, the client is not left with a hidden time bomb that fails the day a manual certificate lapses. Security that depends on someone remembering is not security. We build it so it just keeps working.

Worried about an expiring certificate or an insecure site? Let's lock it down.

Talk to us about security